New trivia question

On February 24, 1961, the Federal Communications Commission granted a first-of-its-kind license to Hartford's WHCT-TV, Channel 18. What did the license allow?

You'll find the answer on the Trivia page of HartfordHistory.net.

Bill O'Reilly, Hartford reporter

Dennis House has another O'Reilly photo on his blog.

Love him or hate him, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly has to be added to the long list of national media figures whose resumes include stops in Hartford. If you lived here in the fall of 1979 and tuned into WFSB-TV, Channel 3 for your news, there was Bill, in appropriate late-'70s blow-dried coif, reporting on stuff like the Windsor Locks tornado or the Harry Chapin concert at the Civic Center.

Channel 3's Dennis House announces in his Hartfordite blog that he's located videotapes of  O'Reilly's reports and will air some of them this Sunday morning on his public-affairs show, “Face the State with Dennis House.” If that's not incentive enough to tune in at 11 a.m., Dennis has this teaser: "I also found videotape of O’Reilly in a sea of screaming girls waiting to meet the big teen idol of ’79. You’ll see who that was on Sunday."

How CNNMoney.com views Hartford

CNNMoney.com has ranked Hartford the country's fifth-best metropolitan area in which to launch a small business.  While that may have many of us scratching our heads--especially in light of near-daily bummers like the City Council's acknowledgment last week that the Project Mayor project planned for the vacant corner of Main and Park streets will never become reality--it's worth noting that CNNMoney.com repeatedly references the city's history:

"The past few years have seen new life--hotels, restaurants, a convention center and a science center--sprouting in the historic city, where you'll also find the country's first public art museum and oldest public park."

There's even a photo of the Old State House. It all speaks to the potential for using the Hartford area's history as a draw not just for visitors but new residents. Heck, it seems to be one of the positive attributes people already associate with us, so why not get the most out of it?

Great new site on Connecticut radio history

Connecticut has made a lot of great history on the airwaves. (Anyone remember WTIC-TV's Ranger Andy?) Now it's celebrated on a relatively new website, Connecticut Broadcast History. The site tilts heavily toward radio history, but there are also pages devoted to TV stations, experimental stations--even pirate radio stations.

Meanwhile, "alumni" of  the Hartford area's most venerable radio stations have been operating some great websites on the individual stations right along. Check out wdrcobg.com and wticalumni.com.

Note: Though the URLs are similar, Connecticut Broadcast History is not connected to this blog's companion site, HartfordHistory.net. Connecticut Broadcast History lists as its webmaster John Ramsey, the general manager and chief engineer of WWUH at the University of Hartford.

Just cleaning out my in-box

Among the items:

1. A copy of the Hartford News, a free weekly that fans of Hartford history should love because the front page of each edition features a vintage photo of the city, under the headline, "Hartford ... Once Upon a Time." The most recent photos are courtesy of the Hartford Public Library's Hartford History Center. The April 9 issue has a great shot -- probably taken from the Capitol dome -- of Bushnell Park being torn up in the early 1940s in order to put the Park River in an underground conduit. As far as I can tell, the Hartford News has no online presence yet, though you can find copies in lot of local businesses. It's published by Southside Media on Franklin Avenue.

2. Speaking the library's Hartford History Center, you've got till Tuesday (great band, but never mind that) to view the "Rain of Parks" collection of vintage photographs taken at city parks.

3. Anyone who's serious about researching anything having to do with Hartford needs to bookmark iconn.org, a state-funded and -operated search engine (or "RE-search engine" as it's advertised.") All you need to use it is your local public library card. This site is absolutely indispensable for tracking down newspaper articles, demographic data -- you name it.

'Antiques Roadshow: Hartford' airs Monday, May 11

When public television's "Antiques Roadshow" stopped at the Hartford Convention Center on August 23, thousands turned out to have their stuff appraised. Now the episode is set to air at 8 p.m. on Monday, May 11, according to Connecticut Public Television.

The highlights will include appraisals of "a signed watercolor painting by Katherine Hepburn, a set of 200-year-old Wedgewood pottery buttons, and a Chippendale rocco table valued at a quarter of a million dollars or more," CPTV says.

WNPR kicks off 'Basement Tapes Project' with recording of MLK at The Bushnell

Connecticut Public Radio (WNPR-FM, 90.5) has launched "The Basement Tapes Project," an effort to find "long-lost audio gems" and put them on the air. The station invites listeners to scour their basements and attics for records, tapes, or any other audio recording that represents a piece of Connecticut history. (Look under the "Services" tab on the left side of the station website for contact information.)

To prime the pump, the station has posted a recording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech at The Bushnell in 1959. King, invited by the University of Hartford’s Hillyer College to give a speech on "the future of integration," was just 30 at the time. The U of H has posted an article on the visit, along with audio clips from the speech, the flyer advertising the speech, and King's publicity photo from the period.

By the way, check the Hartford Courant's Capitol Watch blog for Chris Keating's MLK Day entry on the summers a teen-aged King spent working on a Simsbury tobacco farm. It was King's first time out of the segregated South, and his wonder at the different way of life here was apparent in his letters home. The most moving quote: "Yesterday, we didn't work, so went to Hartford. We really had a nice time there. I never thought that a person my race could eat anywhere, but we ate in one of the finest restaurants in Hartford."