City Line, 1982-1989
Series Description
The television program City Line was a public affairs show with topics centered around Baltimore City’s Black community and had a Black cast and crew. It aired from 1982 through 1989. The show was typically 60 minutes long and was broadcast weekly on Sunday afternoons. Occasionally, there were 90-minute specials, and from 1988-1989, the show was shortened to 30 minutes. Typical programs included a conversation with guests before a live studio audience, a community calendar, a "Newscap" on global and national Black news, and an "Entertainment Page" segment.
The show covered a wide range of cultural, social, and political topics. They interviewed political candidates for the 7th Congressional District in 1986, and in 1987 a Dunbar Middle School teacher and poet, Rita Townsend Crews, was featured on an episode. A February 15, 1987 episode featured a Pennsylvania Avenue Reunion celebrating the famed Black entertainment district of Baltimore.
Well over 200 City Line episodes were produced, and about 153 tapes are found in the series, suggesting that recordings of broadcast programs were not comprehensively saved. Some of the tapes are duplicates and not all of them are full episodes. Re-used labels suggest tape stock may have been recycled, taping over content from earlier shows. Some tapes are public service announcements, tapes from other networks that were used to source clips, raw footage from the field, and even auditions. The bulk of the recordings in the collection are masters, edited masters, and dubs of the show.
Dates
- Broadcast: 1982-1989
Language of Materials
Collection content is in English.
Conditions Governing Access
Local access is restricted due to the fragile nature of the materials and amount of staff available. Local research is available for a fee and must be scheduled far in advance. Access to digitized reproductions of materials is available for free online. Please contact avtech@marmia.org for more information.
Biographical / Historical
The first hosts were Jaki Hall and Dan Henson. On August 26, 1984, B.T. Bentley joined Jaki as her new co-host. In that same episode, Harold Anthony was also introduced as the new host for the “Entertainment Page” replacing Tim Watts. During the last year of the show, the regular hosts became Jaki Hall and Harold Anthony. “Newscap” was hosted by Tea Montier and then later by Isisara Bey.
City Line was created by Reggie Wright when WJZ was looking to replace a program called Sunday Live with a show that had information and entertainment.
On the show's 200th episode anniversary on November 23, 1986, the governor’s office presented an award naming that day as “City Line Day in Maryland” for “demonstrating skills, sensitivity and community awareness in the production of City Line." The show received numerous other service awards from the state.
Extent
9 Reels : Show dubs; edited masters ; 1" open reel video
160 U-matic : Edited masters; masters
Processing Information
The arrangement of this series is primarily chronological. Tapes were identified by the wording found on their labels and were verified when the items were digitized.
The 1 inch videotapes remain undigitized.
Scope and contents descriptions were taken from the corresponding episode summaries and notes if they were included with the tape. If none, then the description was created and condensed from the episode's introduction. Spelling of names is approximate when not supplied by the show. The priority of the descriptions was focused on the main topics and guests.
Repository Details
Part of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive Repository