Saturday Wrestling Smorgasbord in 1974

This TV Sports listing from an August 1974 edition of TV Guide (East Tennessee/Carolina edition) is chock full of wrestling shows from several territories, including Mid-Atlantic, Knoxville, Memphis, and All-South Wrestling.

 

Here are some specifics and context:

At 1:00 PM on WFBC-4 from Greenville, SC it was Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, hosted by Bob Caudle in the same traditional time-slot in appeared in for decades. Up until recently, the show had been named All-Star Wrestling until promoter John Ringly (a top lieutenant for Jim Crockett, Sr.) came up with the Mid-Atlantic name.

At 2:00 PM on WKPT-19 in Kingsport, TN, was likely an edited version of the Memphis show hosted by Lance Russell, simply titled Wrestling as I believe Kingsport was run by the Jarretts at this time.

At 2:30 PM on WBTV-3 from Charlotte, NC, was Championship Wrestling with Big Bill Ward from the WBTV studios. Just a month or two later, all of Jim Crockett's TV wrestling would be consolidated to Raleigh in the studios of WRAL-5.

At 2:30 on WJHL-11 out of Johnson City was likely the old Knoxville show Wide World of Wrestling hosted by Big Jim Hess, which was promoted by John Cazana, just prior to Ron Fuller's buying of the territory, which was in late 1974.

At 3:00 PM on WRET-36 from Charlotte, it was Mid-Atlantic Wrestling hosted by Bob Caudle, (a rare time when the show was identified as such in TV guide!) This was the Raleigh show, since channel 3 was still producing their own studio show, which, as mentioned above, was soon to end. 

At 6:30 on WTVK-26 from Knoxville was Wide World of Wrestling hosted by 'Big" Jim Hess, the locally-taped Knoxville show promoted for years by the Cazana family until purchased by Ron Fuller in late 1974. It was loosely affiliated with Gulas promotions out of Nashville, from where they booked a lot of talent. Soon after buying the territory, Ron Fuller would move the taping of his show to WBIR-10 in Knoxville, rename it Southeastern Championship Wrestling, and hire Les Thatcher to host.

Also at 6:30 on WRET-36 in Charlotte was All-South Wrestling, the non-NWA "outlaw"show promoted by Ann Gunkle and hosted by Ed Capral, the previous longtime host of Georgia wrestling in Atlanta. All-South would soon go out of business, and Capral was hired by Jim Crockett, Jr. to host his brand new Wide World Wrestling syndicated show out of Raleigh in 1975.

Finally at 11:15 on WLOS-13 from Asheville was Championship Wrestling with Charlie Harville, which was a Jim Crockett Promotions show that originated from WGHP-8 in High Point, NC.  Similar to the WBTV Championship Wrestling show from Charlotte mentioned above, this show was soon to end when all of Crockett's TV would consolidate to Raleigh. At that point, WLOS would switch to the Mid-Atlantic "B" show hosted by Les Thatcher out of Raleigh. This time slot (soon to move fifteen minutes later due to the local news expanding to a half-hour) was the traditional WLOS time slot for many years.  

 

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Norm Kimber's Greatest Call (Toronto 1977)

We occasionally feature calls or introductions by some of our favorite ring announcers. 

 

Toronto's Norm Kimber made a memorable, dramatic call of Harley Race's NWA title victory over Terry Funk at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1977:    

 

 

 

The commentators for the match were former NWA Champion Whipper Billy Watson and former NWA President Sam Muchnick. The match took place February 6, 1977.

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Nick Pond Leaves WRAL and "Championship Wrestling" (1971)

WRAL News personality Nick Pond hosted the Raleigh-only version of the Jim Crockett Promotions wrestling show known simply as Championship Wrestling in the 1960s and very early 1970s. 

Pond left WRAL at the end of March, 1971 to become the public relations director of the Durham Chamber of Commerce. He stayed with that job until August, 1973. He returned to WRAL shortly thereafter as a news anchor, but never called wrestling again.

During at least part of the time (and perhaps the whole time) Pond was working at the Durham Chamber, Elliot Murnick (son of Raleigh area promoter Joe Murnick) hosted the version of the Mid-Atlantic show that was exclusive to the Raleigh market. 

Soon after, the dual-tapings ended, and Crockett began taping two different versions of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. The first, hosted by Bob Caudle (who had hosted the syndicated All Star Wrestling for over a decade), was the "A" show that went to all Crockett TV markets. The second, the "B" show hosted by Les Thatcher, went to markets where JCP was able to barter both shows. Usually (but not always) the  second "B" show aired on a different station in that market.

Clipping courtesy of Carroll Hall.

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Wrestling's Success on Charleston Television (1978)

Wrestling Audience Greatly Expanded by TV Saturday
By Bob Gillespie, Charleston Post & Courier, September 23, 1978

TV wrestling – a success story? Go ahead. Laugh. That’s just what both the pro wrestling promoters and local television stations are doing, all the way to the proverbial bank.

For several months now, I’ve followed this TV sports column and I have yet to see anything written on what has to be the tube’s most successful enterprise in the realm of sports. I shall now try to correct this omission.

What am I talking about? Football? Basketball? Women’s field hockey? Tournament-level tiddlywinks? “No” to all the above.

Try professional wrestling.

 

"Wrestling?" you ask, looking down your cultured nose with disdain. That Roman gladiator spectacle of the masses, with costumed clowns flying through the air like so many comic book characters? TV wrestling – a success story? Surely I jest, you say. And you probably laugh.

Go ahead. Laugh. That’s just what both the pro wrestling promoters and local television stations are doing, all the way to the proverbial bank.

The fact is, wrestling, especially on television, has been growing in popularity over the last few years – by leaps and bounds greater than any you’ll see in the ring. And no one realizes – and appreciates – that fact more than Charleston area television management.

On any given Saturday, year round, the Charleston viewer can see wrestling twice in one day. That’s if he doesn’t have cable TV. If he does, add another show on Saturday and one on Sunday. And if you live far enough toward Savannah where you can pick up that city’s television, you can catch two more showings, or five more programs per Saturday.

There’s a reason that pro wrestling is on so often: it’s popular.

“The shows are rather popular in this area, I know that,” says WCIV-TV (Channel 4) Program Director Don Moody. “If we have to move the show (1 pm Saturday) for a network thing, we really get the phone calls.”

Program Director Jim Shumaker of WCBD-TV (Channel 2), whose station carries wrestling Saturday night at 11:45, is even more emphatic. “It’s just unbelievable,” he said. “It leads its time period against all comers. People in this area are really hung up on this wrestling.”

How hung up? “In the last important ratings book, which was back in May, wrestling at midnight Saturday was pulling a 52 percent share of the audience,” Shumaker said. By comparison, Saturday Night Live on NBC (Channel 4) gets 32 percent, while Channel 5 (WSCS-TV), carrying Blockbuster Theatre, takes a 21 percent share.”

 

Channel 2 isn’t the only beneficiary of wrestling, either. When Channel 4 runs wrestling at 1 pm, it gathers in 46 percent shares of the audience at that time, as opposed to 31 percent for Soul Train (Channel 5) and 19 percent for American Bandstand (Channel 2). “They’re obviously doing something right,” added Shumaker.

“They” in this case is an outfit called Jim Crockett Promotions out of Charlotte, NC, who provides their Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in the Carolinas/Virginia areas. Crockett not only handles the live events at local arenas, such as Charleston’s County Hall operation on Friday nights, but also produces the television shows, filming them weekly at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC.

The most ironic thing about the whole operation is the deal between Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and the local television stations. The stations get a program with a high rating – virtually for free.

“Crockett supplies us with the taped program,” Shumaker said. “We give them two one-minute-40-second commercials for promotion of their local wrestling matches. We get the program, which leads its time slot, plus 10 minutes of commercial time to sell. And they’re easy to sell, too.”

Why give away a program when stations that run movies or even network programs against the wrestling - and still lose out – are paying big bucks for those time-fillers? Henry Marcus, who promotes wrestling for the Crockett operation in this area from his Columbia base, has an answer.

“It’s simple,” said Marcus, who started wrestling promotion in 1934. “Television is great, whether you’re selling wrestling or tooth paste. It’s the greatest advertising device man has ever invented. When you can have 75 million people watch the Ali-Spinks fight, you can’t beat it.”

The Crockett TV blitz started “about 18 years ago under Jim Crockett, Sr., the father of the Jim Crockett who runs the operation now,” said Canadian native, Sandy Scott, himself a former popular wrestler who now promotes the Mid-Atlantic product in Roanoke, VA, after covering the Greenville area the last three years. “The first station was Channel 7 in Roanoke in 1950 or so, and the second was WFBC-TV in Greenville.”

Scott, like most people involved in TV wrestling, is at something of a loss to explain its popularity. “I don’t know for sure, but it’s tremendous. Of course, we feel we offer the top wrestling talent, and the best will always hold the audience.”

“Wrestling did well without television, but TV has expanded the number of people we reach,” he added. “Folks in smaller towns see it now.”

The only thing that may be holding pro wrestling back now is the item referred to at the beginning of this piece: its image. Sportswriters and some sports fans deride pro wrestling, question its status as legitimate sport. That’s actually putting it mildly; wrestling is often called a fake, a circus, a joke and the like.

I’m not getting into the merits of such arguments. I like my skin in one piece, thank you. As one local television sportscaster put it, “I used to call wrestling a phony, but I learned you don’t do that in a crowded bar.” But the arguments against wrestling still exist.

If the arguments don’t seem likely to change, though, the image may be doing so. “The wrestling programs on TV draw all spectrums,” Channel 2’s Shumaker noted. “We sell it locally, but our national salesmen say the general feeling among the big sponsors is that wrestling appeals to the ‘blue collar and beer’ crowd.”

“That’s not necessarily so. It seems to be drawing more young people, but it gets men, women and children, all ages. They seem to be expanding the market.”

For sure. Said Marcus, “Our TV survey man in Charlotte estimated that on any Saturday, some 1.1 million people are watching wrestling on stations in the Carolinas and Virginia.” “Blue collars and beer” or not, that’s a heap of potential customers for the TV sponsors.

So whether you love wrestling, hate wrestling, or just don’t care, you’ll keep on seeing it on the tube for a long time. “We tend to take it for granted that it’s going to capture its time slot,” Shumaker said. “I guess you’d have to call it a success story.”

And television is not inclined to give up success stories.

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Photos and graphics were added by the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, and were not part of the original article.

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Les Thatcher: Studio Promo Tapings at WRAL in the 1970s

Conversations with Les Thatcher:
Local Promo Tapings for Jim Crockett Promotions (1970s) at WRAL
Originally published on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

From 1974 - 1977, Les Thatcher hosted and conducted the local promos that were inserted into each Mid-Atlantic and Wide World Wrestling show for each local market. The shows were taped at WRAL TV studios in Raleigh, NC. We talked with Les about how and when those promos were done, offering interesting insight to the making of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling on television.

*********************************

Les Thatcher

Dick Bourne: The tapings in Raleigh were on a Wednesday night, I remember. Did you do the local spot promos before the tapings?

Les Thatcher: Yes. What we did, we usually started about noon, and we used to average over a hundred spots a Wednesday afternoon.

DB: I can believe it, given the number of markets.

LT: That show was in 30-some markets and we had two 2:20 spots per show, plus some of the 30 second promos we cut to go into some of those markets, too. And then occasionally some of the boys might be booked out to Eddie Graham or down to Atlanta, so we’d cut promos to ship out to them. Of course, as antiquated as it all sounds now, back then it worked. I would go into the (Charlotte) office on Monday and George Scott would give me the line-ups, start times, buildings, towns, and so forth. I had an office in the (wrestling) office, but I also had an office at home, They didn’t much care where I worked as long as I got the stuff done. But I would take that old yellow newsroom-type paper, perforated paper that would fold; Jimmy (Crockett) bought that for me by the box. It would fold easy, and I would take a grease pencil and I would write, for example, Friday Night, June the 6th, Richmond, Virginia, the Coliseum, bell time, whatever, and then I would list a few stars, and then one or two matches and the stipulations. And we often would plug three towns off of the same TV. Those were my cues. Nothing was written out for me, there were no teleprompters, no cue cards.

DB: I always wondered if someone was holding cue cards.

LT: Well, Danny Miller helped out with it. Gene Anderson was working in the office at the time, he helped out with it. George Scott himself would help. What they did was take my folded stack of paper and tape them to the top of a music stand, because the post on the music stand was adjustable, and they would make it just high enough that it would fit right under the camera lens. So let’s say, Flair and I are finishing up the last 2:20 on the Richmond tape, and I’ve got that music stand with the Richmond info sitting in front of me; Ric’s on my left, and he’s doing his pitch. And we had a back timer, like photographers use, and that’s how we kept our time. And that was on a stand sitting right there, too. So anyway, we’d wrap up that 2:20 for Richmond, he would step off to the left, Gene or George or Danny or whoever would change the music stand, and now we’ve got the first 2:20 for Raleigh, for example. And then here comes Blackjack in on my right. And we’d hit that 2:20, and then for the same show we’d do the 2:20 (with Blackjack’s opponent) in on the other side . . .

DB: So you would do each city’s promos back to back, babyfaces and then heels?

Les Thatcher and Bob Caudle (1974)

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LT: Yes, and I got off of that set for two reasons and two reasons only: to go to the bathroom or to grab a quick bite to eat. That was probably the first place I worked where they catered anything in because we were there so long. Now days, it’s standard procedure in both TV companies to have food catered in. But back then, they’d bring in Col. Sanders for us. And also, as well as I was dressed (for the TV), I finally succumbed to crape-soled work shoes because I was standing on that concrete so much.

DB: And your shoes never showed on TV . . .

LT: Exactly. So once I was aware of that, I said, hell I’m driving myself crazy wearing these shoes. We would start at noon and sometimes it was 5 o’clock before we were finished.

DB: I don’t see how your voice held out.

LT: I’m not sure, either, to tell you the truth, Dick. And the funny thing is, I got that 2:20 in my head, you’re doing a hundred of these every Wednesday. But there were times that someone would step on the plug of that back timer, or for whatever reason it would stop, I would keep the interview going, and I swear to you, I could finish it within a couple of seconds one way or the other of the exact time, because I had done them so many times. And then I go to Knoxville and do my spots up there (for Southeastern Championship Wrestling.)

DB: I guess you just get in a rhythm.

LT:  Exactly. My schedule, when I was doing both shows between November of 1974 and February or March of 1978, before I moved to Knoxville, I would, as I said, go in (to the Charlotte office) and get the stuff from George (Scott) on Monday. I was helping with the magazine, and the TV in Charlotte, plus I was wrestling a couple of nights a week, and then we’d go to a show on Tuesday, and then drive up from Charlotte early that Wednesday morning, did promos from noon to 5 o’clock, grabbed a bite to eat, I was hosting the one show, Bob Caudle was hosting the other. And then once I started doing the Knoxville show, I think Jimmy was afraid people would see Les on two shows in the same market, and that’s basically when Ed Capral came in.

DB: That must have been in 1975 or 1976, because when I first discovered Wide World Wrestling on channel 13 in Asheville, Ed Capral was the host. I never knew you hosted one of the (Mid-Atlantic) shows until I read it on your site. We didn't get the second Mid-Atlantic show where I grew up.

LT: You mentioned channel 13 in Asheville earlier; do you know in that three-station market what our share or percentage of homes tuned in to that show was?

DB: I remember knowing that it was huge . . .

LT: Between 70-80%.

DB: Good grief! 

LT: Yep, when our show was on the air in that three station market, our show was watched by between 70 and 80 percent of the homes available to those three stations.

DB: Unbelievable.

LT: Another guy in the Crockett office, who wasn’t involved in the wrestling, we put together a promotional packet, laid out the design for the little cover and all that, and in there we had a sampling of the different markets we were in and what kind of shares and numbers we pulled there. That’s how I remember the Asheville thing so vividly. So when people think wrestling’s popularity started with Hulk Hogan, it just drives me crazy. But anyway, we’d do the TV in Raleigh on Wednesday, and then Thursday, I’d wrestle for Crockett someplace, then Friday morning, I would get on Piedmont Airlines, remember them?

DB: I certainly do. My Dad flew them every week for awhile.

LT: I would get on a Piedmont flight in Charlotte that hopped into Greenville/Spartanburg, then into Asheville, and it finally got me to Knoxville. Ron (Fuller) would pick me up at the airport, we’d do lunch, go to his house, we’d lay out the TV, I helped him with the booking along with Nelson Royal, then we’d work Knoxville Friday night, and then do TV Saturday morning, work a house show some place Saturday night and I’d get back on the bird Sunday morning, and I’d do it all over again.

*******************************************  

Special thanks to Les Thatcher for his insights on the studio promo tapings at WRAL. [GATEWAY]

Les educated us on the promo tapings in the 1970s. Jim Cornette shared some amazing information on one of his podcasts about the Crockett studio promo tapings in ther 1980s, at the make-shift TV studio in the garage at Briarbend Drive:

Jim Cornette Explains All About the TV Distribution Process for JCP in the 1980s

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In 1974-1975, Les Thatcher and Bob Caudle both hosted a separate hour of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling taped at the studios of WRAL in Raleigh NC. Bob's show was the primary show (or "A" show) and aired in all Mid-Atlantic markets. Les's "B" show aired in select markets that supported a second hour of JCP wrestling, and usually on a different station on those markets.

For example, in the Greenville/Asheville/Spartanburg market, the Caudle show aired on WFBC-TV channel 4, the NBC affiliate out of Greenville SC at 1:00 PM on Saturday afternoons. Thatcher's show aired at 11:30 PM on WLOS-TV channel 13, the ABC affiliate out of Asheville NC.

 

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Russ Dubuc: The Lost Voice of Wide World Wrestling

[Updated]
Longtime fans of Jim Crockett Promotions television will remember the popular syndicated program Wide World Wrestling (later known as World Wide Wrestling). The major hosts of that program over the years were Ed Capral, Rich Landrum, David Crockett, and Tony Schiavone. But even the most hardcore JCP fans may have forgotten a fellow who hosted that show in the late 1970s due to his relatively short tenure - - Russ Dubuc.

In the late fall of 1977, Jim Crockett Promotions parted company with host Ed Capral, the longtime Atlanta TV wrestling host who came to JCP after being pushed out of Georgia politically on the wrong side of the NWA/Gunkel wrestling wars of the mid-1970s. He became the inaugural host of  Wide World Wrestling when JCP launched the new show in 1975.  JCP replaced Capral with a local Charlotte radio and TV personality by the name of Russ Dubuc. 

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I've long thought of Russ Dubuc as the "lost voice" of Wide World Wrestling. He was only on the job with JCP for about five months. Since none of those episodes exist anymore, and it only aired in about 60% of the Crockett TV markets at that time, Dubuc is largely forgotten in the annals of Crockett Promotions television history. And it was, after all, over 46 years ago. 

Dubuc had been both a radio and TV presence in the Charlotte area for roughly a decade, most notably as an AMS-certified meteorologist for WSOC channel 9 television, where he appeared on both the 6 PM and 11 PM newscasts. At that time he was the only AMS certified meteorologist in the Charlotte demographic market.

1970 ad for WSOC's Eyewitness News featuring Russ Dubuc

Russ remembers it was Jim Crockett, Jr. who called him and offered him the job. Crockett was familiar with Dubuc's work at channel 9. 

In a telephone interview, Russ told me about some of his memories of his short time in the wrestling business. On Wednesday afternoons, the day of the week wrestling was taped at WRAL television studios in Raleigh, he would meet with others at a parking lot on highway 150 in Concord and carpool up to Raleigh for the day. He would typically travel with someone from the office, and that also occasionally included wrestlers. 

The wrestlers he remembered working with the most on TV included Ric Flair, Wahoo McDaniel, Blackjack Mulligan, Ricky Steamboat, and a few others. He loved the work, and had been a huge fan of wrestling himself before getting the gig, but did express frustration over how he was thrown right into the fire hosting the show without much preparation. He wasn't "smartened up" at all, and was told to simply call it as he saw it. He felt that limited his performance for them somewhat. 

But his most vivid memory of his time in wrestling wasn't in the television studio behind the mic. It had to do with traveling back and forth to Raleigh. His exact words: "Wahoo McDaniel was a maniac!" He laughed as he told about how Wahoo drove like a wildman and would often blow past the car Russ was traveling in at very high rates of speed.

AUDIO RECORDING
I recently came across an audio recording of an episode of Wide World Wrestling hosted by Dubuc from February 4, 1978. I was delighted to have the opportunity to document his contributions to Jim Crockett Promotions with a sample of his voice from that program.

In this clip, Dubuc is making fans aware of how they can get their very own free Wide World Wrestling bumper sticker. At the end of the audio clip you'll briefly hear the voice of Ricky Steamboat, his guest color-commentator for the week. The audio was recorded on a handheld cassette recorder and is pretty low fidelity, especially given the condition of the cassette when it was unearthed. But you should be able to make it out:




In the early spring of 1978, Dubuc was replaced as host of Wide World Wrestling by Tom Miller. Booker George Scott, Crockett's booker at the time, co-hosted the program. Russ thought they probably weren't happy with him. But the only explanation he was given at the time was that he was taller than most of the wrestlers and that wasn't a good look on TV. Oddly, "Truckin'" Tom Miller was nearly as tall.

No photos seem to exist of Dubuc on the job at the wrestling tapings at WRAL, but we were able to locate some video of him calling a water-skiing tournament for ESPN in the early 1980s, and captured this still image of him alongside ESPN personality Kevin Slaten.

Russ worked in many fields over the years. In addition to his work as a weathercaster for WSOC in Charlotte and his short stint as host of Wide World Wrestling, he also ran a water-skiing school in Davidson, NC and was a snow skiing instructor and worked ski patrol in Brekenridge and Vail, Colorado. He was the lead actor in a 1977 film shot in Charlotte called "Another Son of Sam." He was a top sales person for BG Distributors in Raleigh, NC, and later owner of the BG distributorship in Wichita, Kansas.  He now owns and operates his own travel business, RD Travel Limited, Inc., a Kansas City travel agency. 

Teacher, trainer, broadcaster, actor, salesman, business owner, travel advisor - - - add to that waiting tables, dirt track racing announcer, radio DJ, and wrestling announcer, and you have a very well-traveled and well-rounded individual. A very nice fellow, too. I enjoyed our telephone conversation. As fans, we are proud to call him a Jim Crockett Promotions alumnus.

- Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Thanks also to Carroll Hall
Updated April 2024
from an original post in April 2018

Wide World Wrestling Theme Music 1975-1978

Check out this post on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway with streaming audio of the "Wide World Wrestling" theme music used during the time Russ Dubuc was host of the program.

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Crockett, Caudle, Schiavone Reunion in Raleigh (2022)

Photo courtesy of Tony Schiavone

What a reunion! David Crockett, Bob Caudle, and Tony Schiavone get together in Raleigh, NC. 

David and Tony made the special effort to visit Bob during the afternoon on January 12, hours before the big All Elite Wrestling (AEW) show that night in Raleigh. Jim Ross had planned to join them, too, but travel arrangements prevented it. 

Bob and David hosted Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling together in the 1970s. David then moved over to host World Wide Wrestling in 1982, and Tony joined him as co-host in early 1984. Bob continued as host of NWA Pro Wrestling throughout the 1980s. Tony and David also hosted World Championship Wrestling together on Superstation WTBS in the mid-to-late 1980s. All three were part of big national television and pay-per-view specials for Jim Crockett Promotions and later Ted Turner's WCW.

What a special photograph! Thanks to both Tony and David for sharing this great reunion.

* * * * *

Late edit (1/17/22): We posted this same photo on Twitter  as well, and it went viral (at least viral for us), garnering over 139,000 twitter impressions in the days after. A big surge of that occurred after Good Ol' J.R. Jim Ross retweeted it. A lot of fans from the 70s, 80s, and 90s were happy to see Bob again, and delighted to see all three of these guys together in the same special photograph. 

(Originally posted on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.)

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Promoter Paul Winkhaus (JCP/Greenville SC)

PROMOTER PAUL C. WINKHAUS

Winkhaus was the promoter in Greenville SC and surrounding area

for Jim Crockett Sr. in the 1950s through the early 1970s.

 

Edited E-mail to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway from longtime

Greenville SC wrestling historian Don Holbrook

Yes, I knew Mr. Winkhaus well. He was indeed Crockett's man in Greenville. He also handled Columbia, Asheville, Anderson back then and did a few other cities around here from time to time like Greenwood at the ball park and others. He was already up in years, we are talking late 1960's for a reference point here. He lived in Matthews North Carolina, outside of Charlotte and he was originally from Ohio I think. He told me that he was a sports writer for a newspaper somewhere before he got into wrestling. One thing I remember was how creative he was at writing press releases that he would send over to the newspaper here in town to go along with the ad they ran every week for Monday nights card.

Most of the years Billy Powell was ring announcer, he actually worked for Winkhaus. Billy would walk in the back door about 15 minutes before show time and he and Mr. Winkhaus would go over the line up and any changes or announcements, etc.

I actually rode to the Anderson Recreation Center with Mr. Winkhaus a few times on Thursdays. There was a period of time he was running a show there every other week or so. This was before I was old enough to drive. He used to stop by the Greenville Memorial Auditorium on Thursday afternoons on his way to Anderson. He also would run the tape for Saturday afternoon television by the WFBC-TV studio over on Rutherford Road on some of the Thursdays. I can remember running it in to the lobby desk at channel 4 for him a time or two.

He was a nice old man to me, but he had a gruff sounding voice and back then wrestling was so believable that many of the folks around here would be on him the minute they saw him, complaining about the heels, one thing or the other. He was interesting to talk to and he would tell me wrestling stories and at a young age. I thought it was so cool to have this inside track on wrestling.

Mr. Winkhaus died not long after he retired. After his death, there was a short period I don't think they had anyone acting as local promoter. I can remember Johnny Ringley, Crockett's son-in-law coming down a few times, and once I remember Jim Sr. was here on Monday handling things. There may have been an interim along that time, I don't remember, but the next one I do remember was Sandy Scott. He actually lived in an apartment out on Wade Hampton Blvd. for a long while and ran the same towns Winkhaus did but also helped George Harbin with Spartanburg and more spot shows in Western N.C. Then Danny Miller came in when Sandy went back to the Charlotte office.

- Don Holbrook, Greenville SC

 

 Despite what the caption indicates, promoter Paul Winkhaus is on the LEFT,
Billy Powell is on the right.

 

 

Snow Cancellation and Holiday Announcement
Asheville NC 1970

 

 

The Passing of Paul Winkhaus

 

Paul Winkhaus died November 1974. He was ill for several months prior to that and could hardly walk the last 3 or 4 times he came to Greenville, so much so that he couldn't even make it down the steps to the dressing rooms to talk to the guys. So they had to send the referee upstairs to get the instructions from Winkhaus who was in a small dressing room on the main floor level. Mr. Winkhaus "resigned", moved to his hometown in Ohio and died shortly afterward.

I remember that he took great pride in the newspaper ads and the results and write ups. He was a former newspaper writer and had a great ability so that is why the ads and the write ups were so good. I used to see him at Greenville Auditorium in an outer office typing his materials for the newspapers. Asheville was one of his towns and he worked really hard to promote it. He was the main reason WLOS had such a good relationship with Crockett Wrestling.

- Don Holbrook, June 2012

Studio Wrestling Interview: Video Tech Tom Gallagher from WRAL

Tom Gallagher worked in videotape at WRAL television from 1979 until 1982 and his adventures with the JCP wrestling crew that moved into the Raleigh studio "A" every Wednesday paint the most complete picture of a day at WRAL wrestling tapings that has yet been published to our knowledge.

Tom and I were introduced via e-mail and I asked Tom to share with us his role in the wrestling tapings. Presented below is Tom's recent letter to me regarding those memorable Wednesdays. 

 

- Dick Bourne, January 2009

********************************************

An Email From Tom Gallagher

Most of what I would contribute regards the technical nature of the show, from 1979 to 1982 when I worked videotape at WRAL-TV.

To orient you, the videotape room at WRAL was in the basement, near the corner below the “WRAL-5” message sign that can be seen behind Bob Caudle in a picture on the Gateway. The studio was on the ground floor, and the production control room was on the second floor almost directly over the VTR room.

Just about every Wednesday, wrestling would take over production at WRAL-TV after the noon news and, except for the six o’clock news, was about the only thing that would happen for the rest of the day. It’s pretty well documented elsewhere that the shows (World Wide Wrestling and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling) were taped in the evening, so I’ll deal with the afternoon session.

On Wednesday afternoons we produced the 2:20 commercials that followed the announcement “Let’s take time out for these commercial messages about the [World Wide / Mid-Atlantic] wrestling events coming up in your area.” This was the whole basis of the economics of these shows: stations got an hour of programming material that they didn’t have to pay money for, and the promoters got almost five minutes of commercial time to plug their local arena matches. ("Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling has been furnished to this station for broadcast at this time by Jim Crockett Promotions, in exchange for commercial consideration.") These spots ran at about twenty and forty minutes into the show. To sweeten the deal, there were commercial positions within the show that the station could sell to even make a profit, or maybe just pay the electric bill to keep the transmitter running.

The WRAL Video Tape Room

The studio was set up with just the background flats; the ring was kept on the truck and set up during the six-o’clock news break. As you can see from the pictures, we had exactly four high-quality (“quadruplex”, or “quad”) recorders that used 2” tape. Only two of them had the modules that allowed electronic editing, the alternative being a razor blade and adhesive tape. Almost all the stations that aired wrestling did it from 2” tape (the exception was Bluefield, which used BVU ¾” tape). I don’t believe any station got the show on 1” BVH. Those were the days when VTRs weighed half a ton and cost a quarter-million apiece. WRAL was lucky to have four (FOUR!) 2” VTRs. Since only four copies of each show existed, and they had to be air-shipped on Thursday to get to the stations on Friday before the program managers went away for the weekend, there was no time to make copies of shows.

What happened to the tape reels was described as a bicycle wheel, or “the bicycle.” No, we didn’t send the shows out on the back of a bicycle! If you imagine Raleigh as the hub, and the various cities on the rim, the show tapes travelled up and down the spokes. I don’t recall the specific order, of course, but the show that aired in High Point, for example, would come back, have new commercials edited in, and get sent back out to Louisville, come back, get new commercials edited in again, and then be sent back out to Buffalo. After the first week, each show would air in only four markets (Bluefield would always get the new show on ¾”, which would make five the first week.) Each show might be airing each week, somewhere, for as long as a month or more.

Producing and editing the commercials is what happened Wednesday afternoon. We edited live-to-tape, which means that as the talent was promoting the match for a city we were recording on the tape that would go to that city. On the production side, the floor crew usually had the likes of David Gill, Leonard Peebles, Rick Armstrong, Art Howard, Tilla Fern, Kara Carite, and others. The control room had Ruth Miller or Joe Johnson on audio and, depending on the week, directors George Pemberton, Bob Gubar, Kevin Duffus, Bud Brown, Tom Lawrence, Pam Parrish (Pam Paris?), or Connie Goodman. I was all alone in VTR.

My job started during the noon news. Carl Murnick would bring down about two-dozen tapes. I would cue each tape to the beginning of the first 2:20 (two-minute twenty-second) commercial, then dismount both the supply reel and the take-up reel from the tape machine. In the wide shot of the tape room (above) you can see the last eight tapes for the day stacked on the floor. To make an edit, I would load a tape onto the machine, find the exact beginning of the commercial to be replaced by the edit, zero the tape time counter, and then rewind the tape about thirty seconds. From thirty seconds back, I would play the tape and make several mechanical and electronic adjustments to the machine, while watching the timer and counting-down to the beginning of the commercial so that the studio could cue the talent (Mr. Landrum or Mr. Caudle). There was a 2/3-second delay between when I pressed the “edit” button and the actual edit, so I had to account for that. As soon as the recording started, I would move to the second machine and load that tape, cue it up, and get ready for that edit--- hopefully before the first 2:20 commercial was done, because I had to have my finger on the button to end the edit recording, otherwise we would be recording over the show! After ending that first edit on the first tape, I would put that tape into fast-forward to get to the second commercial, move to the second machine and make the first edit there, move back and cue-up the first machine to the second spot while the second was recording, end the second machine and edit the first, cue up the second, end the first and rewind and take off and cue up a new tape, and so on and on.

Tom Gallegher on the job in the WRAL video tape room.

If it sounds complicated, it sure was. It was OK once you got used to it.

I would record the commercials to be edited into the shows recorded that night onto the 1” tape machine, and Carter Bing or Walter Armstrong would edit those commercials into the tapes before they were shipped.

About halfway through the afternoon, we took a break from production while the studio flipped the background flats around from the “A” show to the “B” show; yep, as folks who went to the studio tapings will attest, the only difference between the shows was which side of the background flats faced the camera! One side had “Mid-Atlantic Championship Wresting” on it, and the other side was “World-Wide Wrestling.”

As soon as we finished taping the commercials, everyone split for dinner or some other sort of refreshment.

As I mentioned above, the late Carl Murnick handled all the tape routing and shipping. Now, I can’t say anything about Elliot or Sonny Murnick or any of the Crocketts--- they hardly ever made it down to videotape--- but I’d give anything to work with the likes of Carl again. He always treated me well, and on the numerous occasions when I made mistakes he always took it good-naturedly, shrugged it off, and simply trusted me to do better in the future. Every week, he brought down a box of chicken and a corn-cob from the Church’s chicken down the street, and that was my dinner every Wednesday. I appreciated that more than he ever could imagine, because I wasn’t making very much working in TV and it would often be the best meal I had all week. When C&M eventually got their own remote truck I was urged to go after the tape job, but I had gone back to school and wasn’t where I could change jobs, but I was sorely tempted based on the good treatment I got from Carl.

Also, as I mentioned above, the tape job was a bit complicated and, when I first started, I was a bit slow. So slow, in fact, that we’d finish the afternoon session after five-thirty, a bad thing since they had to move the cameras back over to another studio to do the six-o’clock news. (WRAL had three studio cameras. At $65,000 a pop, most stations only had two. Field cameras for ENG and EFP were about the same price.) A late finish was not desired by either the client or the crew, to put it mildly. After a couple of weeks of late wrap-ups on the promos, the wrestlers decided that enough was enough and deputized Gene Anderson to take care of the problem, which was me.

Gene came down to the tape room, which you can tell from the pictures had a pretty low ceiling, and proceeded to impress on me how desirable it was for me to do a bit better in my job. I don’t remember what he said, but I can tell you that it was the most inspirational, motivational, sensational talking to I have ever heard. I was scared witless. I just knew the cane he carried was going to impact me somewhere (it never did.)

 

Over the next week, I carefully laid out plans, practiced my editing, reviewed my plans again, practiced editing some more, and did a whole lot of praying that it would be enough.

 

By the following Wednesday, I was one of the best VTR guys on the East Coast.

As weeks went by, I got even better, which led to some eventual mischief. You probably noticed that the 2:20 promos started out the same way --- Rich Landrum giving the where and when for the local arena shows--- and the wrestlers would amble into the shot for a few moments to shout threats of violence at their opponent in that town (who was likely sitting on the bleachers a few feet away munching on some chicken.) All the while, Rich stood there holding the microphone. As a matter of fact, Rich had to stand there through all those 2:20 promos, and the only break he would get was between promos, while the studio and control room waited for the guy in VTR (me) to set up for the next edit. Well, I got things so fine-tuned that I all but eliminated the pause between promos; Rich would be lucky to have ten or fifteen seconds to rest his arm, and forget about stepping out from under the lights (still quite warm, back then!) We got the rhythm going, and before you knew it Rich had been out there continuously for about forty-five minutes without much of a break at all. Finally, HE had to ask the entire production to stop so he could take a break. I can’t remember what I said, but I’m sure it was some wise-butt remark.

Anyway, sorry Mr. Landrum. You just have to know, some of those other guys were bigger than you, and they wanted me to do things as fast as could be done!

- Tom Gallagher, January 22, 2009

The credits roll at the end of another edition of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.

Copyright © 2009 Mid-Atlantic Gateway • Photos courtesy of Lee Collins. Photo (from newspaper clipping) of Carl Murnick courtesy of David Bullock.

Originally published on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in January 2009

Johnny Weaver and Bob Bruggers make an Impact on A Young Man at WGHP

FROM THE GATEWAY MAILBOX: A LETTER TO THE GATEWAY FOLLOWING THE POSTING OF OUR WGHP STUDIO TELEVISION FEATURE

I spent many days at the TV tapings at High Point, and I got to know a lot of the guys, at least as well as a little kid that was star struck could. Two of my earliest memories are from those tapings.

Charlie Harville and Johnny Weaver at Channel 8

I never had a dad around, and even as a very young man I was already showing signs of going down a bad road. I was fighting and telling lies. My mom saw where this kind of thing could lead. Well one day after we went to the tapings at WGHP, she went to Johnny and talked to him for a few minutes, then she called me over. I was in awe. The studio was empty other than us. Johnny was sitting on the ring near were the seats were and I was standing there next to him looking up at my hero. My mom had let him in on my acting up, and he asked me what was going on. I really don’t remember what I said, more than likely not a lot, people that have known me for a long time would be shocked that I was ever at a loss for words, but I was then. I do remember that he asked what I wanted to do with my life, and I said with out a moments thought that I wanted to be a wrestler. He smiled and said if I acted right at home and did not give my mom problems, and did good in school, that he would one day teach me how to wrestle.

Well I thought of that many times in my life after that. I ended up only being 5'8", so I never did call him on it! But I have no doubt that it changed my life. I did stop telling lies, and tried to be a good person, and I to this day try my best to live a life where I help people. In just a few minutes he became my role model, and I will never forget that.

Then one day when we went to the taping, there where no seats left. I remember being upset that we would not be able to see the show, but then the coolest thing that could have happened to a kid happened. We ended up sitting with the wrestlers. 

There was a small room that led into the studio. After the people were in there seats the guys would come in and sit there waiting for their matches. The guys were talking, and sitting around. I was looking at the monitor seeing the show, and then someone sat next to me. I looked over and it was Bob Bruggers. He said hello and talked to me for a bit. I asked him about himself, and then he told me that he had played football for the Dolphins. WOW! That just blew me away. 

Growing up in High Point we had no teams around, and the team that I loved was the Dolphins. This was near the end of the tapings there, around 1974 I think. After a few minutes he went out and did his match. I can not even tell you how cool it was to sit there and watch him walk away and then he was on the screen in front of me. I was yelling for him to do well. I remember the guys getting a laugh watching me get so into it. 

Well you know what happened in 1975 not long after that. When the plane crash happened, I was in shock. When I heard he was in that plane, I felt that my friend was gone. What a damn shame that was, but I will always remember him for the kindness he showed a little kid one day in High Point. 

I have so many good memories from that point in my life, going to the shows in Greensboro, and Winston Salem, and all over really. Thank you for starting this website. It is great to have these memories, and to know I am not the only one that really misses the days when the best show in the world was in my backyard.

- Michael Roach
February 2006

Timekeeper's Table, Greenville SC

Greenville Memorial Auditorium, circa 1970

Front Left to Right: Floyd Ulmer, promoter Paul Winkhaus, ring announcer Billy Powell, and timekeeper Wayne Hamby. Back left against wall: Don Holbrook.

(Photo: Gene Gordon / c. Scooter Lesley)

 

A neat little story about this photo. Scooter Lesley, who owns the copyrights to Gene Gordon's photo library, came across this photo and knew I was interested in the old local promoters, ring announcers, etc. I was interested in who the two other people in this photo were (besides Winkhaus and Powell) but Lesley didn't know. I hadn't paid much attention to the kid sitting at the wall in the background.

At Fanfest in Charlotte in 2013, I showed the photo to Don Holbrook, a good friend and Gateway contributor for many years. Don's mother worked at the Greenville Auditorium box office, and he spent many Monday nights there as kid in the 1970s. He even served as timekeeper occasionally. I thought maybe he knew who the others were in the photo.

"Floyd Ulmer (squatting at left) was a part time box office employee at GMA," Don told me. "He also went to Anderson and Greenwood for Mr. Winkhaus and sold tickets at those shows. Wayne Hamby (timekeeper at right) was John Hamby's son. They both did timekeeping, rotated I guess."

Then Don's eyes narrowed as he focused on the kid in the chair behind the table. "Oh my goodness," he said. "That's me." Don had the biggest smile on his face. Forty-three years after that photo was taken he was seeing it for the first time. That was a pretty cool moment.

I asked Don why the ring announcers table was in the back of the arena as opposed to ringside.

"The table was always in the back at in Greenville," he told me. "I can not say why for sure but one reason might have been Mr. Winkhaus walked with a limp and from time to time filled in for Billy Powell if he was on vacation or whatever. Winkhaus never got in the ring, made all announcements sitting at the table. Billy did go to the ring to intro each bout. The microphone cable had to be long enough for him to pull it to and from the ring."

 

 Mid-Atlantic Gateway contributor Don Holbrook in 2013 with the 1970 photo seen above. Don's right hand is pointing to himself in the picture, sitting behind the timekeeper's table at Greenville Memorial Auditorium.
(Photo: Dick Bourne)

 

Studio Wrestling Interview: Mark De Castrique (WBTV Director)

2012 Mid-Atlantic Gateway Interview with
MARK DE CASTRIQUE
Early 1970s Director of Championship Wrestling at WBTV-3 

Image: markdecastrique.com

In 2012, I had the good fortune to have an email exchange with Mark de Castrique, an author and Emmy winning documentary producer who many years ago directed "Championship Wrestling" at WBTV-3 in Charlotte, NC. In this brief interview, Mark reflects on those Wednesday nights at the television studio with Jim Crockett and his crew, including sharing some good memories of host "Big" Bill Ward as well. 

- Dick Bourne, Mid-Atlantic Gateway

* * * * *

Mid-Atlantic Gateway: Thanks for taking the time to share with us, Mark. While at WBTV, what was your role there as it pertained to the Championship Wrestling show?

Mark de Castrique: I was one of the staff directors who regularly directed the Wednesday night tapings from June 1970 to December 1972. It was a lot of fun. "High drama."

Gateway: Do you remember in which specific studio you taped wrestling?

Mark: Championship Wrestling was taped in the large studio #2. The ring was set up by Crockett's people on Wednesday afternoon supervised by an old retired wrestler named Wally [Dusek] and we taped in the evening.

Gateway: Realizing this was 40 years ago, do the names of any of the wrestlers from those years stick out in your mind? Any particular memories about any of the wrestlers or things that happened during the tapings?

Mark: Some of the wrestlers on the shows I directed were also ones I had watched on Channel 3 as a kid. Rip (The Profile) Hawk & Swede Hanson, Johnny Weaver, The Great Bolo, Jerry Brisco, The Kentuckians, Haystack Calhoun, Homer O'Dell and his tag-team. Abe Jacobs and his patented Kiwi roll. You remember most wrestlers had their signature hold that guaranteed victory if they could just apply it.

Gateway: Did Jim Crockett attend any of the pre-show production meetings? Do you have any particular memories of dealing with him?

Mark: Big Jim attended all pre-production meetings. We would go over the format, I'd make sure I had I.D. slides for all wrestler introductions. We played it straight. I never knew who was going to win or what dramatic events would unfold. After our meeting, Big Jim would meet with the wrestlers in the dressing room. Big Jim was nice but all business when it came to the show.

Gateway: What are your memories of "Big" Bill Ward? Did you work with him on any other shows?

Mark: I only worked with Big Bill Ward on wrestling. He was easy to get along with and I remember his stock "action" phrases. "They're fighting like gladiators of old." "It's a Pier Sixer" (whatever that meant). "He's lower than the belly of a snake at the bottom of the Mariana Trench" (or bottom of the ocean). Usually used in reference to the evil manager Homer O'Dell. And, of course, Big Bill's signature sign off - "Hello to all the shut-ins" and "Be good sports wherever you go!"

Gateway: Gene Birke, who shared some nice memories about directing wrestling at WBTV on the website "BT Memories", has written that some at WBTV didn't like the association with wrestling and resented the high ratings it got. Would you consider yourself part of that group?

Mark: I think any resentment toward the program came from two fronts. WBTV Sports didn't report on the matches because they didn't consider it a sport. Big Bill Ward referred to them as Exhibition Matches to handle station concerns regarding their being represented as a competitive sporting event. The second negative view came from national advertisers. The program got great ratings, but ad buyers from New York and other areas outside the region looked down on it. This was before wrestling mania swept the country through pay-for-view distribution. Unfortunately, Big Jim didn't live to see the development of the huge national audience. I considered the production entertainment and enjoyed watching the antics of the crowd as much as what was happening in the ring.

Gateway: What other local shows did you direct besides Championship Wrestling?

Mark: Newscasts, Betty Feezor, Pat Lee Show, Country Style Roundup with future congressman Bill Hefner, Tommy Faile Show, Fred Kirby Show, and various special projects.

Gateway: You are a successful author now. How long after you left WBTV did you stay in the TV production business, and at what other stations? Were you ever involved with directing or producing wrestling at another station?

Mark: I am still in the TV production business. I left WBTV at the end of 1972 and worked for over four years as a director at the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. We didn't have wrestling. We had Congress and Watergate. I'd prefer wrestling where the good guys and bad guys were easier to spot. I returned to WBTV as manager of their creative department and then program director. I left in 1984 as a partner in a production company. In addition to writing my mystery/thriller novels, I do documentary and corporate video production. I feel fortunate to have been a part of local television when the stations did a variety of programs and were a reflection of all aspects of their communities.

Gateway: Mark, thanks so much for your time and walking down memory lane with us. This will be of great interest to folks who visit the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. 

See also: WBTV-3 Studio Wrestling History

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Mark de Castrique is the author of several novels including his latest mystery/thriller "The 13th Target." He is a veteran of the broadcast and film production business and has received an Emmy Award for his documentary film work. He also has a pretty good memory when it comes to early 1970s pro-wrestling, and I appreciate him sharing some of those memories with us.

 

Visit Mark's website at http://www.markdecastrique.com/.

---

Updates:

8/26/12 - Mark posted a link to this interview on his Facebook page, and there was some discussion there with his friends, including a question about any memories of audience regulars at the wrestling tapings, which elicited this funny response: "Tickets were in high demand and no one came week to week. Mostly church groups. I always thought it odd churches came to watch guys pulverize each other."

8/27/12 - Mark mentioned on Facebook that a secret of his past had been revealed with the Gateway interview. But we didn't out him; Mark had earlier mentioned his connection with pro wrestling in a 2010 interview with the Salisbury (NC) Post. From the article: Now based in Charlotte, de Castrique moved here in the 1970s and had a broadcast career with local TV stations. "This was before the days of cable. Local stations did everything. ... I once directed professional wrestling, did an entertainment show ..." From "Writer Goes from Broadcast to Book" - SalisburyPress.com. 

---

Originally published August 23, 2012 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

 

The Lost Art of Great Ring Announcing

Legendary Joe McHugh introduces "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers

I have a fondness for many of the old-school ring announcers. They all had a a certain flair for the dramatic, and made the introduction of any match seem special.  The art of classic ring announcing went the way of the old smoke filled rooms that were the classic old venues in pro-wrestling.

One of my favorites might surprise you; the great Joe McHugh of the old W.W.W.F.

McHugh was a wrestling and boxing announcer going back to the 1950s, most famously with wrestling fans at the W.W.W.F. television tapings at Allentown, Pennsylvania's Agricultural Hall. When I first saw WWF "Championship Wrestling" on WOR-9 out of Secaucus, NJ in around 1981, I thought to myself, "Now THAT is a ring announcer."

This is an audio clip of McHugh introducing "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers at the Philadelphia Spectrum in the mid-1980s. I loved the way McHugh included the historical mention of Rogers being the only man (at that time) to have held both the NWA and WWF world titles. Those details mattered, and meant something to fans in that era.

The audio of that introduction is included here:

I always thought Joe McHugh and Raleigh's Joe Murnick (my favorite ring announcer of them all) were kindred spirits, at least in their ring announcing style, and both with accents of speech that clearly demonstrated from where in the country they hailed. They are both at the very top of my list.

(Edited from a post originally published January 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.)

Ed Capral and Paul Jones on Wide World Wrestling

 

Host Ed Capral and U.S. Champion Paul Jones
on the set of Wide World Wrestling in WRAL TV studio.

Wide World Wrestling - Opening Theme (1975-1978)


Wide World Wrestling - Closing Theme (1975-1978)


 
Thanks to Craig at Wrestling Media (wrestlingmedia.ws) for the audio.

Saturday Night Wrestling

 

I miss when wrestling was a one-hour, Saturday, late night type of thing.

The WESC Wrestling Radio Show in Greenville

Greenville News (Greenville SC) May 14, 1978
Article by Deb Richardson
Clippings from the collection of Mark Eastridge

 

"The Wrestling Show" aired on WESC FM in Greenville, SC at midnight on Monday nights after the weekly matches in the Greenville Memorial Auditorium. This was in the mid to late 70's. WESC  midnight-to-6:00 am DJ Fred Nabors was the host.

Fred Neighbors (center) with Ric Flair and Greg Valentine

 

Sandy Scott, Crockett's local promoter at the time, was in studio also. They would have the results from the night's event, play taped interviews from earlier the same night that Fred Nabors would conduct before the matches and tape them for play on the show. Usually, they would get some of the guys to stay in town and go live on the air during the show.

Ric Flair, Greg Valentine, Sandy Scott

 
A fellow named Jim McNerney lived in Greenville and was trying to break into writing for the wrestling magazines. He persuaded Fred Nabors to let him come in the studios that night and take these pictures.

 - Don Holbrook, Greenville SC
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

More photos: Nabors, Flair, Valentine  |  Nabors, Scott, Flair, Valentine  |  Ric Flair & a Cold One