Radnor, PA: TV Guide Magazine Group, Inc., 1975. Western Illinois Edition. Wraps. 14, A-76, 15-28 pages. Illustrations. Includes advertisements. Ink notation of front cover. Cover illustration is the cast of the Bob Newhart Show. Feature article on "What Happens Before The President Goes on TV. TV Guide is a biweekly American magazine that provides television program listings information as well as television-related news, celebrity interviews and gossip, film reviews, crossword puzzles, and, in some issues, horoscopes. The national TV Guide's first issue was released on April 3, 1953, accumulating a total circulation of 1,560,000 copies that were sold in the ten U.S. cities where it was distributed. The inaugural cover featured a photograph of Lucille Ball's newborn son Desi Arnaz, Jr., with a downscaled inset photo of Ball placed in the top corner under the issue's headline: "Lucy's $50,000,000 baby". The magazine was published in digest size, which remained its printed format for 52 years. The formation of TV Guide as a national publication resulted from Triangle Publications' purchase of numerous regional television listing publications such as TV Forecast, TV Digest, and the New York-based Television Guide. Each of the cities that had their own local TV listings magazine folded into TV Guide were among the initial cities where the magazine conducted its national launch. The launch as a national magazine with local listings in April 1953 became an almost instant success. More