What did American Bandstand had the impact of new and old generations

[spencerkarter85]

On the passing of Dick Clark. What impact did American Bandstand had on young and old generations?

[azumanga]

Even though I was a 70s child, not much for me -- Bandstand was pre-empted by WJRT when I lived in Bay City, and after I made the move to Tampa Bay, by WTSP (WXLT (WWSB) carried it, but we always made WTSP the go-to station for ABC).

[landtuna]

For the generation of the 50's I think Dick Clark and Bandstand legitimized Rock 'n Roll.  Prior to AB a lot of people saw RnR as "race music" and sort of underground.  Singers like Elvis made the situation a bit worse initially with their performances which gathered a lot of criticism.  Clark came along with his acceptable manners and a bunch of clean cut kids and took the edge off.

[MCarney]

Even though I was a 70s child, not much for me -- Bandstand was pre-empted by WJRT when I lived in Bay City, and after I made the move to Tampa Bay, by WTSP (WXLT (WWSB) carried it, but we always made WTSP the go-to station for ABC).

A similar story with me - Bandstand was pre-empted in Boston by both WNAC and WCVB, and in Providence by WTEV and WPRI (except for a short period in the spring of 1979). I would go into my parent's bedroom and put on WMUR from Manchester (the B&W in the bedroom was the only set in the house that could pick up WMUR). It did expose me to some music I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise, especially R&B acts.

[Kent T]

Most of my growing up years, Bandstand was something I seldom could watch. Our ABC affiliate was WTVK-TV 26 in Knoxville, TN. In 1978, WTVK got the 1,000,000 watt power boost, and was receivable on par with WBIR TV 10 (CBS) and WATE TV 6 (NBC). WTVK became the present WVLT TV 8 later on. In the old days, I lived in Oak Ridge, TN in East Village until fall 1990. Most of my youth, 6 and 10 were receivable off air, 26 was not. If you lived in higher elevations like West Outer Drive, 26, Chattanooga's 3, 9, and 12, and some Georgia stations were receivable with a good antenna as well as WLOS-TV in Asheville, NC.