As I Recall: What The People Don't Know...Might At Least Cause FOMO!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned my recollection of the motto utilized and posted for years by the publication which was then called The Johnson City Press Chronicle: "What the people don't know WILL hurt them." Granted, "hurt" may be perceived in relative terms; that is, much like the difference between a minor scratch and a deep puncture wound, and from an individual perspective, the tolerance level and resulting degree of harm may vary from person to person, in conjunction with other factors at any particular moment. From a less extreme perspective of "hurt," I have had feelings more akin to a situation referred to by the acronym FOMO [fear of missing out]; that is, I have been curious about what information may be withheld, as well as wondering why it would be in some instances. One of my earliest recollections of such a feeling was in my early childhood when I would watch the daily broadcasts of the children's program Captain Kangaroo. Likely I could compose multiple articles simply about memories of that program, which originated years before other notable children's programs such as Sesame Street and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. For its time, Captain Kangaroo provided child appropriate entertainment and instruction. In the early years of its run, the broadcast was live and the host Bob Keeshan [The Captain] had the occasional task of promoting the sponsor's products. From what I understand, Mr. Keeshan did the product promotions out of necessity and was pleased and relieved later when doing so was no longer a requirement. In any case, I noticed from time to time when the Captain would say "And now I have something to show you," that our local station either turned down the sound or otherwise directed the screen from what the Captain was about to present. Now in the days of live broadcasting, a constant challenge faced by those in the studio who were tasked with monitoring the network feed was attempting to coordinate the timing of local versus network transmissions. Accordingly, in the early years, there was often an imperfect match which resulted in some unintended overlaps. One such example occurred one afternoon just before the CBS network broadcast of Password, when, to my surprise, I saw the title card and heard the announcer say, "Channel 2, New York," which was from the CBS flagship station in New York City, and certainly not the expected typical local station identification of "WJHL, Channel 11, Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol." Other times, local would intercut the network, whereby, for example, The Edge of Night may be well into its original ominous opening chords before the station cut to the network broadcast. As typical for me, I have digressed. And now, back to the Captain. Because of the preceding described imperfections in coordination [which is not to criticize those who were so tasked, as likely it was remarkable that they did as well as they did under the time constraints and pressures], I was able to determine that what we in the WJHL coverage area were not being permitted to see was advertising for Wonder Bread...and, pun intended of course, that did make me wonder! I suppose that, in retrospect, at that time Wonder Bread may not have been widely distributed in the area, and the station did not see the point of presenting advertising about a product that viewers generally would be unable to obtain. Sometimes what would happen is that the Captain may be allowed by the station to proceed so far as to say "This portion of Captain Kangaroo is brought to you by..." at which point the network sound was turned off, and the local announcer would say "WJHL, in cooperation with CBS." As a child, I did not perceive the withholding about Wonder Bread to be very cooperative! Now we will return to our story...that is, The Edge Of Night, to address another FOMO occurrence. Fast forward a few years to when the mystery drama switched from CBS to ABC. For a while, our local ABC station presented it on a delayed basis, but in the morning...until one fateful day that the station ceased to carry it. The network time slot for the program was 4 pm, after General Hospital, which enjoyed a ratings surge in the late 70's/early 80's. During the closing credits, there was always a voiceover promo for the next scheduled network program, and usually as soon as the ABC announcer would say "Coming up on The Edge of Night," the sound was turned off. We deprived viewers could not even at least hear what peril heroine Nancy Karr might be suffering. Do the above instances constitute any real hurt or harm? Admittedly, comparatively, speaking, I must say no. But it did underscore and intensify FOMO! •• Mike Baker is a local author.