CFN-SCN productions are the programs which were locally produced & written by the crews and staff of CFN or SCN during the 58 years we served the Panama Canal Zone. Select the programs of your choice to learn more info about the show, the cast and view any photos we had from our personal collections. Please let us know if we are missing the names of any locally produced SCN shows on our lists or any info, names, timelines or corrections you can offer. We have no records, so the info & photos on our website are a product of our collected memories & personal collections.

These lists only depict the programs which our CFN or SCN crew produced for our Canal Zone audience. Not the stateside programs. Most of the programs aired on SCN were "Canned"  (pre-recorded) TV shows & film from the US which were shipped by AFRTS to their worldwide outlet stations on a weekly basis in film reels, video tapes, Satellite feeds, etc., depending on the technology of the era. These "Canned" programs were not produced by CFN-SCN and many could not be broadcast due to Treaty restrictions. CFN-SCN was heavily restricted by the Broadcast Treaty limitations from Panama who did not want their TV revenues impeded by the free AFRTS programming.

Thus, CFN-SCN was unable to broadcast the popular shows to the Canal Zone audience. We were quite distressed at having copies of the latest Star Trek episodes and other popular US shows SCN received in our shipments from AFRTS every week... but could not broadcast them to our audience. Rest assured, our SCN crew was extremely unhappy about these restrictions and did not agree with the situation. We were limited to showing only those programs which the local Panama stations had not purchased such as "Oh Susannah" "Bob Cummings" "Gale Storm" and "Ida Lupino" from the 50's which we were forced to show in the 70's. We could not even show the popular cartoons for the children. Only the dreadful "Gumby" "Hercules" and other unpopular cartoons could be shown because the local Panama stations had paid a fee to obtain these shows and depending on advertising revenues to pay for the programming costs. They were quite adamant that our commercial free broadcasts would affect their revenues. The Canal Zone audience was subjected to old, unpopular shows until cable TV was eventually installed in 1990. I don't agree since there was a language barrier between the Panama broadcasts and those of SCN. What we needed was a better, more aggressive Treaty negotiator. 

In an effort to fill the void with shows to stimulate the local audience, the CFN & SCN crews and staff locally produced a vast number of TV and Radio programs for their Canal Zone audience. Shows produced covered a wide variety of subjects such as News, Variety, Dance, Children's, Educational, Theater, Plays, Film Reviews, Humor and specials. You may have thought programs like Dateline were developed by the US TV Networks, but many of these shows were actually developed first by CFN or SCN. When our talent returned to the US commercial radio & Television markets, they adapted these ideas to the commercial US market. Many of which became immensely popular, top rated US programs, some of which are still on the air today... such as Dateline.

Most of our locally produced programs were made on a shoestring budget, primitive equipment and a lack of access to better supplies. However our CFN-SCN  team also became the first source of broadcast experience for many famous celebrities, actors, anchors, DJ's and actors after leaving SCN. Such names as Robert Loggia, Ron Harper, Al Lohman, Del Vaugn, Paul Hogan, etc. AJ Carothers was the screenwriter for many Walt Disney films. Many of our veterans are still anchoring for major US stations and networks today.