Editing Firing Line (TV program) (section)

==Broadcast history==
[[File:William F. Buckley, Jr. 1985.jpg|thumb|left|Original host Buckley in 1985]]

''Firing Line'' began on April 4, 1966, as an hour-long show (including breaks) for commercial television. The program was produced at [[WWOR-TV|WOR-TV]] in [[New York City]] and was [[broadcast syndication|syndicated]] nationally through that station's parent company [[RKO General]] and later Show Corporation of America, a syndication firm which RKO acquired majority ownership of in 1968.<ref>{{cite web|title=Showcorporation to handle RKO shows. |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/68-OCR/1968-03-11-BC-OCR-Page-0067.pdf |periodical=Broadcasting |page=67 |date=March 11, 1968 |access-date=April 17, 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url =https://www.emmys.com/news/longtime-firing-line-host-william-f-buckley-jr-dies | title =Longtime Firing Line host William F. Buckley Jr. Dies | date =March 1, 2008 | publisher = [[Academy of Television Arts & Sciences]] | access-date =December 23, 2018 | quote =When Firing Line began in 1966 it was on commercial television, syndicated from New York's WOR-TV. After 240 episodes the show moved to public television in 1971, where it remained a PBS staple until Buckley decided to close down the show in 1999.}}</ref> ''Firing Line'' was mainly seen on weekends in low-rated afternoon or late-night time slots, because of the program's admitted appeal to a small, "[[Middlebrow|middle-brow]]" demographic group.<ref>{{cite magazine | url =https://www.weeklystandard.com/andrew-ferguson/on-the-firing-line | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20181206075824/https://www.weeklystandard.com/andrew-ferguson/on-the-firing-line | url-status =dead | archive-date =December 6, 2018 | title =On the 'Firing Line' | last =Ferguson | first =Andrew | date =March 10, 2008 | magazine = [[The Weekly Standard]] | access-date =December 23, 2018 | quote =Firing Line was a creature of the middlebrow—--that long-gone impulse of the mid-20th century popular culture that tried to orient a mass audience toward learning, intellectual sophistication, and cultural uplift.}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | url =https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/06/01/can-firing-line-be-rebooted-for-the-trump-era-218582 | title =Is America Ready for Kinder, Gentler Political TV? | last =Hendershot | first =Heather | date =June 1, 2018 | magazine =[[Politico]] | access-date =December 23, 2018 | quote =On Firing Line, Buckley staked a claim for witty, urbane, sophisticated conservatism.}}</ref> The first 39 episodes of the series were taped in black-and-white; the series was converted to color in January 1967.

In the fall of 1966, ''Firing Line'' began to appear on [[noncommercial educational]] television stations, mostly in areas where RKO General found it difficult to sell the program to a commercial outlet.<ref>{{cite web|title=Buckley show sold to ETVs. |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/66-OCR/1966-09-05-BC-OCR-Page-0056.pdf |periodical=Broadcasting |page=58 |date=September 5, 1966 |access-date=April 17, 2022 }}</ref> After 240 episodes aired in commercial syndication ''Firing Line'' moved exclusively to noncommercial television in May 1971, distributed by the [[Public Broadcasting Service]] (PBS) and produced under the auspices of the Southern Educational Communications Association, an arm of [[South Carolina Educational Television]].<ref>{{cite web|title='Firing Line' program advances to ETV front. |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/671-OCR/1971-02-15-BC-OCR-Page-0048.pdf |periodical=Broadcasting |page=48 |date=February 15, 1971 |access-date=April 17, 2022 }}</ref> This was somewhat unusual, given the reputation among many conservatives that PBS unfairly discriminated against non-liberal viewpoints in its other programming. SECA/SCETV, however, was one of the very few public broadcasting entities of the time that was sympathetic to the conservative movement.<ref name="Pedersen">{{cite web | url =https://deadline.com/2018/02/pbs-conservative-talk-show-in-principle-michael-gerson-amy-holmes-1202305774/ | title =PBS Announces Conservative Talk Show As Trump Administration Mulls Whacking Pubcaster's Funding | last1 =Pedersen | first1 =Erik | last2 =de Moraes | first2 =Lisa | date =February 28, 2018 | website=[[Deadline Hollywood]] | access-date =December 23, 2018 | quote =But it started in 1966 on SECA/SCETV, which was one of the very few public broadcasting entities of that time that was sympathetic to the conservative movement.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url =https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6m3nc88c/entire_text/ | title =Register of the Firing Line (Television Program) broadcast records | publisher =[[Online Archive of California]] | access-date =December 23, 2018 | quote =In 1971, under the auspices of the Southern Educational Communications Association (SECA), it moved to public television and became a full hour.}}</ref>

Because the program received a relatively unfavorable Sunday evening timeslot on PBS' schedule in the early 1970s, Buckley and long-time director [[Warren Steibel]] briefly attempted to return ''Firing Line'' to commercial TV, but could not find sponsors. Thus, the program would remain on PBS until Buckley and Steibel discontinued production on December 17, 1999, with Buckley's final episode airing December 26, 1999.<ref name="Pedersen"/><ref>{{cite magazine | url = https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,992956,00.html | title = All Quiet on the Firing Line: William F. Buckley Jr. | last =Ferguson | first =Andrew |author-link=Andrew Ferguson | date = December 27, 1999 | magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | access-date = February 11, 2022 | quote = On a bleak afternoon last week, in a dim little TV studio in lower Manhattan, Firing Line finally ran out of ammunition. Hosted for 33 years by the conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr., the show taped its final installment, which will air on PBS stations the week of Dec. 26.}}</ref>

In April 2018, [[PBS]] announced that it would begin airing a new ''Firing Line,'' hosted by [[Margaret Hoover]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title='Firing Line': PBS Reloads Public-Affairs Show With Host Margaret Hoover |url=https://deadline.com/2018/04/firing-line-revival-pbs-margaret-hoover-wnet-1202377099/ |magazine=Deadline Hollywood|date=April 26, 2018}}</ref>