WRAL-5 RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA
Featuring Bob Caudle, David Crockett, Ray Reeve, Nick Pond, Ed Capral, Rich Landrum, and others.
By Dick Bourne, Mid-Atlantic Gateway
WRAL TV in Raleigh is the studio location most closely associated with Jim Crockett Promotions and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. Studio A at WRAL was the site of weekly TV tapings for over three decades. There were other TV production locations (primarily in Charlotte and High Point), but by 1974, all of the remaining regional taping locations had ceased and all Crockett TV taping was consolidated into Raleigh's channel 5 studios.
At that point, two versions of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling were taped, one hosted by long time Raleigh TV personality Bob Caudle, the other hosted briefly by Sam Menacker and then regularly by Les Thatcher. The Thatcher-hosted "B" show replaced WGHP's Championship Wrestling in markets where it was also syndicated at the time. (Example: Asheville's WLOS-TV). On October 8, 1975, a new program called Wide World Wrestling, hosted by long time Atlanta wrestling announcer Ed Capral, replaced this Mid-Atlantic Wrestling B-show.
Thatcher would continue to do the local promo spots to be inserted in the local broadcast of each show. (Thatcher also produced and hosted the Southeastern Championship Wrestling program for Ron Fuller in Knoxville, TN, during this period.) Capral left the promotion in late 1977 and was replaced by various hosts over the following months which included Les Thatcher, Russ Dubuc, George Scott, and Tom Miller. On the weekend of October 7, 1978, Rich Landrum became the permanent host of the show, which was renamed World Wide Wrestling.
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| David Crockett and Bob Caudle at the desk for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling |
Bob Caudle's main co-host was promoter David Crockett through the WRAL period. Tom Miller filled in during the summer of 1976 when David Crockett was tending to another family business with his sister Frances Crockett: the Charlotte O's minor league baseball franchise. Big Bill Ward, who hosted Championship Wrestling for Crockett Promotions in Charlotte on WBTV from the late 1950s through early 1970s, briefly co-hosted with Bob Caudle on the second Mid-Atlantic show in 1974 after TV tapings had been consolidated to Raleigh. Lord Alfred Hayes had a stint as co-host in 1980. Landrum's regular co-host on World Wide Wrestling would eventually be Johnny Weaver.
Prior to this consolidation, in the 1960s and early 1970s, WRAL was actually the site of one show only, a one-hour taping with simultaneous "dual" audio tracks being recorded. As they taped the matches, they had two broadcasters calling the action separately. Nick Pond, longtime WRAL sportscaster, hosted the show that would be seen in the Raleigh market (with co-host Joe Murnick much of that time, who was also the local Raleigh promoter for Jim Crockett), while at the same time one desk over, Bob Caudle called the action for a tape that was sent out to other markets in the Mid-Atlantic area that didn't have their own local TV tapings. Both Pond and Caudle also did sports and weather for WRAL television. Elliot Murnick replaced Pond on the Raleigh broadcast in April of 1971 when Pond ltook a second job to work for the Durham Chamber of Commerce. For most of this time, the Raleigh show was called Championship Wrestling and the syndicated show was called All-Star Wrestling. When all of the other studio locations ceased taping by 1974, Caudle became the sole host of what was re-titled Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling which was now sent to all of Crockett's TV markets including the home base of Raleigh.
Wrestling first debuted on WRAL on January 31, 1959 at 5:00 PM. (See clipping here.) The show at the time was titled Championship Wrestling. In the earliest days of wrestling on WRAL, the legendary hall-of-fame broadcaster Ray Reeve called the wrestling action before turning over the duties to Pond, who was Reeve's assistant early in his career at WRAL. Reeve was the long time radio voice of the North Carolina State Wolfpack and was the first broadcaster inducted to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. (On a side note, Charlie Harville, the long time host of Championship Wrestling taped at WGHP in High Point NC in the 60s and 70s, was the second wrestling broadcaster inducted into NC Sports Hall of Fame.)
But the voice most associated with WRAL wrestling will forever be the one and only Bob Caudle, a long time employee and on-air personality at WRAL, who continued to do TV for the Crocketts when they moved production to WPCQ in Charlotte and then took the production out to the arenas. Caudle is still loved by wrestling fans today, receiving standing ovations at wrestling legends shows and conventions around the old traditional Mid-Atlantic wrestling area. He was an inaugural inductee into the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Hall of Heroes in August of 2007, part of the NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest in Charlotte.
Fans still call for his trademark show closer, "We'll see you next week fans, and until then, so long for now."
| WRAL STUDIO - BASIC INFORMATION plus vintage photos below. |
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| Call Letters: |
WRAL |
| Channel Number |
5 |
| Network Affiliate |
ABC (Originally NBC, now CBS) |
| Began Taping |
Late 1950s Earliest known broadcast: January 31, 1959 |
| Ceased |
July 29, 1981 (Final Taping) |
| Play-by-Play Hosts |
MID-ATLANTIC WRESTLING: Raleigh telecast (1960s - approximately 1972): Ray Reeve, Nick Pond, Elliot Murnick Syndicated telecast: Bob Caudle, Les Thatcher, Sam Menacker (briefly) WIDE WORLD (later WORLD WIDE) WRESTLING: Ed Capral, Tom Miller, George Scott, Russ Dubuc, Rich Landrum |
| Color Commentators |
MID-ATLANTIC WRESTLING: David Crockett, Tom Miller, Joe Murnick (Raleigh version only) Short term: Lord Alfred Hayes, Big Bill Ward. (There were brief runs by several others including Sandy Scott, Roddy Piper, and Sir Oliver Humperdink) WIDE WORLD (later WORLD WIDE) WRESTLING: Johnny Weaver, George Scott, Tom Miller (There were brief appearances by several others.) |
| Ring Announcers |
Joe Murnick, Carl Murnick, Elliott Murnick, David Crockett, Jim Crockett, at least one other unidentified on audio tapes. |
| Local Promos |
Bob Caudle, David Crockett, Rich Landrum, Ed Capral, Les Thatcher, Bill Connell The famous commercial bump "Let's take time for this commercial message about the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling events coming up in your area..." was voiced occasionally by WRAL weatherman Bob Debardelaben. |
| Taping Night |
Wednesday nights |
| Show Titles |
Championship Wrestling, All Star Wrestling, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, Wide World Wrestling, World Wide Wrestling |
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| Tiger Conway catches Ric Flair in a side headlock as Blackjack Mulligan watches on, waiting for a tag. The match took place on Wide World Wrestling at WRAL (1976). |
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| Photograph from the collection of George and Jean Scott. Displayed on the Tampa Bay Times website in an article by Andrew Meachum on the life and death of George Scott. |
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| Bob Caudle with Sandy and George Scott on the set of All Star Wrestling at WRAL (1973). |
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| Wahoo McDaniel executes a back suplex on Wide World Wrestling at WRAL(1976). The referee is Angelo Martinelli. |
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| The versatile Les Thatcher (also a wrestler, TV wrestling producer,
and editor of the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling magazine) and Bob Caudle each
hosted a version of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in 1974 and
1975. |
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| Raleigh promoter Joe Murnick served as ring announcer for many of the matches held at WRAL. |
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| David Crockett and Bob Caudle open up a broadcast of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling at WRAL (1974). |
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| U.S. Champion Blackjack
Mulligan and Mid-Atlantic Champion Ric Flair with Ed Capral on Wide
World Wrestling at WRAL (1976). |
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| Rich Landrum interviews one half of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew (and one
half of the World Tag Team Champions) Gene Anderson on the set of World
Wide Wrestling (1981). |
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| Rich Landrum and US Champion Ricky Steamboat on the set of World Wide Wrestling at WRAL (1979). |
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| TV Guide ad for wrestling on WRAL TV-5 (1974). |
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| Admission was free to the WRAL TV tapings, but tickets were required
(ticket seen above) until the early 1980's, when a letter was issued
instead of tickets (seen below). |
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| Letter issued for admission to wrestling tapings at WRAL studios. |
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| The Mid-Atlantic "A" show, hosted by Bob Caudle, used this familiar bumper graphic for over a decade. |
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| Mid-Atlantic "B" show hosted by Les
Thatcher (1974) |
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| An ad in TV Guide magazine for Late Dateline on WRAL, featuring Bob Caudle doing the national news and weather. (TV Guide, October 28, 1967) |
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| Ray Reeve was the original voice of professional wrestling on WRAL-TV in the late 1950s |
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| Nick Pond followed Ray Reeve as announcer for pro-wrestling on WRAL-TV
in the 1960s. He would be joined soon after by Bob Caudle. They recorded
two simultaneous broadcasts at each taping: Pond called the matches for
the Raleigh market while Caudle called the matches for the rest of the
territory. Eventually, Caudle would become the lead announcer for one
single taping. (Thanks to Carroll Hall at All Star Championship
Wrestling blog for these clippings.) |
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| An ad from the Raleigh NC newspaper in December of 1980, advertising a rare double night of TV tapings at WRAL. Jim Crockett Promotions took an annual two-week break right before Christmas, so they would double up on TV tapings leading up to the break, as well as tape a special year-end highlights show. The result was three weeks worth of television taped in two days. They would typically resume regular tapings the first Wednesday after Christmas. |
