Paul Boesch in Houston

 

Paul Boesch on the famous Channel 39 set of Houston Wrestling with Nick Bockwinkel and Dusty Rhodes

From:  Fans of the original Houston Wrestling and Paul Boesch

Paul Boesch Wrestling History (on Tim Hornbaker's LegacyOfWrestling.com)

History of Georgia Wrestling on Television

The following is a post by Georgia Wrestling historian Rich Tate from 2003 on the old Wrestling Classics message board. It is included here for historical purposes. [LINK]

More specific information about the period following Black Saturday in July of 1984 can be found on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in the article Ole and Solie: The Evolution of TV Wrestling in Georgia after Black Saturday. 

* * * * * * * 



RICH TATE: I am attempting to piece together a timeline for wrestling on TV in the Atlanta area. Can anyone make corrections or fill in gaps? Especially after Black Saturday...that's where my most confusion lies. Also, if anyone can add to it by adding in what may have been happening in Macon, Columbus, Augusta and Savannah, it's very much appreciated. (Bold and italicized text is mine.)

1954: Live Atlanta Wrestling first appeared on WLWA Channel 11 (ABC affiliate), a three-year-old station, hosted by Ray McCay, who had previously been doing the radio broadcasts of local shows on WQXI-AM 790. The show would jump around the schedule throughout its run on this station, and seemed to become an afterthought more and more as time went on. Prior to that, local fans could only see what the network feeds brought in, and more recently, the shows had been sent in via tape from Texas.

1955: Ed Capral, who had been the ring announcer, replaces McCay on Live Atlanta Wrestling.

1961: Channel 11 ownership changed hands, and its call letters became WAII.

1969: Once again, new owners took over at Channel 11, and the call letters became WQXI.

1970: On January 1, Atlanta independent UHF Channel 17 (WJRJ) is purchased by Ted Turner and renamed WTCG. Les Thatcher began working as a co-host and associate producer, a position he would hold for three years.

1971: Live Atlanta Wrestling changed its name to Georgia Championship Wrestling, beginning with the program shot on August 14. On December 25, Georgia Championship Wrestling aired for the first time on WTCG in a permanent time slot, with taping in the afternoon, and airing each Saturday at 6:00 pm. This was the reason the promotion decided to change stations. It had become very difficult to keep fans coming to the studios for live matches when the schedule was so varied at Channel 11.

1972: In June, WTCG begins re-airing its Saturday tape on Wednesday night as a prime time replay. This lasted until the fall. On December 2, WTCG began airing back to back episodes of Georgia Championship Wrestling and All-South Championship Wrestling in back to back Saturday evening slots. Capral changed over immediately to the All-South program, and Sterling Brewer was called in to cover the announcing for GCW, while maintaining his job in Birmingham for Nick Gulas’ show.

1973: Brewer was replaced on Georgia Championship Wrestling by Gordon Solie, who continued to do the announcing for Championship Wrestling from Florida out of Tampa. During the summer, Georgia Championship Wrestling shifted to morning hours to tape their programs.

1974: After the closing of All-South, Georgia Championship Wrestling continued on as the sole wrestling show on WTCG.

1976: A second program, called Best of Georgia Championship Wrestling, began airing on WTCG hosted by Freddy Miller. On December 17, WTCG became the second satellite-delivered cable program service (behind Home Box Office), and the first satellite superstation. The first Georgia Championship Wrestling show that could be seen beyond Atlanta was taped and aired on December 18.

1979: WTCG changed its call letters to WTBS on August 27, with the first Georgia Championship Wrestling show taped and aired on September 1.

1982: Georgia Championship Wrestling changed its on-air name to World Championship Wrestling.

1983: A co-promotion initiated between Ole Anderson and Jerry Jarrett called GCW Superstars aired for three months on WTBS, produced and hosted by Les Thatcher.

1984: On July 7, the final episode of World Championship Wrestling taped and aired on WTBS, and fans were introduced to WWF programming the following week. The WWF debuted on July 14 in WCW’s former time slot, on a day that has been dubbed by fans as “Black Saturday.” In September, a new promotion operated by Ole Anderson and Ralph Freed got an early morning time slot on WTBS each Saturday. The promotion and the show were both called Championship Wrestling from Georgia, and Gordon Solie was back as the announcer. Meanwhile, Turner sold a Sunday night time slot on WTBS to Mid-South Wrestling, hosted by Jim Ross.

Gateway Note: More specific information about the period following Black Saturday in July of 1984 can be found on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in the article Ole and Solie: The Evolution of TV Wrestling in Georgia after Black Saturday. 

1985: Jim Crockett bought the Championship Wrestling from Georgia business and time slot on WTBS, and began airing World Championship Wrestling on the time slot he purchased from Vince McMahon. This version of the program was hosted by David Crockett and Tony Schiavone. 

Joe Pedicino began producing and hosting a show on WATL Channel 36 (Independent) that aired each Saturday night, starting at 8:00 pm. It lasted through 2:00 am, and showed tapes from various promotions around the world in their entirety.



Some responses are included below with additional or clarrifying information.

[A] KING COMBO: 
1983: A co-promotion initiated between Ole Anderson and Jerry Jarrett called GCW Superstars aired for three months on WTBS, produced and hosted by Les Thatcher."

AFAIK, didn't the full shows only air in Chattanooga (where the show was taped), and only selected matches aired on the Sunday show w/ other GCW footage?

"1984: On July 7, the final episode of World Championship Wrestling taped and aired on WTBS, and fans were introduced to WWF programming the following week. The WWF debuted on July 14 in WCW’s former time slot, on a day that has been dubbed by fans as “Black Saturday.” In September, a new promotion operated by Ole Anderson and Ralph Freed got an early morning time slot on WTBS each Saturday. The promotion and the show were both called Championship Wrestling from Georgia, and Gordon Solie was back as the announcer. Meanwhile, Turner sold a Sunday night time slot on WTBS to Mid-South Wrestling, hosted by Jim Ross."

The show was still called World Championship Wrestling (in the intro and on the studio banner) after Black Saturday. The "coming up next..." slates on TBS still referred to the show as Georgia Championship Wrestling, as did Gorilla Monsoon. The show had original interviews at this point but no original matches.

It is worth noting that of the 3 shows, Mid-South drew the highest ratings (making it the highest rated show on cable at the time).

"1985: Jim Crockett bought the Championship Wrestling from Georgia business and time slot on WTBS, and began airing World Championship Wrestling on the time slot he purchased from McMahon. This version of the program was hosted by David Crockett and Tony Schiavone. 

Joe Pedicino began producing and hosting a show on WATL Channel 36 (Independent) that aired each Saturday night, starting at 8:00 pm. It lasted through 2:00 am, and showed tapes from various promotions around the world in their entirety."

Somewhere in February-March, the WWF buckled to Turner's pressure and moved the W/GCW show to the studio on Techwood Drive for its own tapings w/ Gorilla Monsoon as host and Freddie Miller as ring announcer. This lasted about a month or so before the slot was sold to Crockett. These tapings featured the studio returns of Mr. Wrestling II & Roddy Piper.

"1986: Ann Gunkel starts a second version of All-South Championship Wrestling that aired for several weeks on WANX Channel 46 (Independent), hosted by Les Thatcher."

I believe this was the year of the first showing of the "History of Atlanta Wrestling" special on WATL, along w/ the first Wrestlethon (24 hours of various footage hosted by Pedicino w/ phones manned by wrestling personalities taking donations for local charities). Wrestlethon '88 featured the return of live studio wrestling in Atlanta, w/ several matches done at WATL, and a feature on the Fox Network's late show.

Someone else probably knows more about North Georgia, SCW, NWA Georgia/Wildside, etc.

[B] RED MASK: Rich, Championship Wrestling From Florida w/Gordon Solie aired on WTCG Channel 17 Saturdays at 7pm right after GCW at 6pm around late '74/'75 after All-South went down.

[C] CINCINNATI KID: wish I could give you more information on the wrestling on TV in Atlanta. I do note that the station that initiated the shows was WLW-A, which was owned by the Crosley Broadcasting Company's division of Avco. It was that same company who started TV wrestling in Cincinnati on WLW-T, then on Channel 4, on February 4, 1950. In time, the Crosley affiliates in Dayton, Ohio - WLW-D, Channel 2, and in Columbus - WLW-C, Channel 4, (after the Cincinnati station moved to Channel 5), all began carrying matches from the Al Haft promotion. Matches were aired on Saturday afternoons and Saturday nights. By the early 1960's, even WLW-I in Indiapolis was airing TV matches of the Haft promotion out of Dayton with the other WLW stations likewise picking up the feeds. As with other programming and in the area of engineering, Crosley was always at the forefront. 

Bobby Simmons Talks Columbus and Macon GA TV Shows in the 1970s

The following is a transcript of a portion of a 6:05 Superpodcast interview with Bobby Simmons, a key office employee (as well as a referee) for Georgia Championship Wrestling going back to the "wrestling war" days of the early to mid 1970s. In fact, Bobby got into the business working for Tom Renesto and Ann Gunkle of All-South Wrestling, the group that split off from the NWA. Simmons was the only person that worked for Gunkle that was immediately given a job with the NWA group, at that time run by Jim Barnett and booked by Harley Race. He was a valued member of both teams. 

Here, Bobby talks about the other long-forgotten TV shows in Georgia that were produced by promoter Fred Ward, who ran the towns of Columbus, Macon, and Albany. Ward had his own TV shows, booking the talent from the main Georgia office out of Atlanta. This subject has always been of interest to me, but little was known about it outside of folks that were there at the time. Bobby shed some major light on both "Columbus Championship Wrestling" and "Macon Championship Wrestling."     

****

Bobby, you mentioned earlier that on Saturdays you had Atlanta TV in the morning and then you had Columbus TV later in the day at the Columbus Sports Arena. At some point during the week, you also had Macon TV – what was the schedule like with TV’s, and how hectic was a Saturday with both of those TV tapings and – correct me if I’m wrong – that’s over 100 miles apart: Columbus to Atlanta.

Bobby: From downtown to Columbus – probably 118, maybe. Something like that. It was not interstate back then, either. It was not an interstate that went all the way to Columbus; there is now, wasn’t then. The police knew in all those little small towns – we’d be coming through there and they’d watch for us. We were, uh – after Gunkel went out of business and we were Georgia Championship Wrestling, we taped 2 hours on Saturday morning. It was supposed to start at 10 o’clock and be over shortly after noon. If that was the case, you could get out of there – you would be to Columbus by 3/3:15 and then you had 45 minutes until the show started, and it was live; there was no tape. So, but that was never the case, because it never started on time, and there was always some sort of technical glitch between shows that would slow you down – from starting the second hour. You would get out of there – I had gotten out of Atlanta TV as late as 2 o’clock, and have to be in Columbus. I had actually walked through the sports arena in Columbus, GA, throw my bag over the counter to the guy running the concession stand, and went to the ring, because the guys were on their way to the ring, and they were gonna use another wrestler for a referee, and as I walked in, he’d peel off and I’d go to the ring. I’d find out from the guys in the ring what we were doing.

And that was live TV, Columbus, right?

Bobby: It was live TV. It was that close. Mr. Ward and Ralph Freed – his son-in-law – and Leon Ogle – who was his son-in-law, Ralph worked in the office and Leon – Leon actually booked for Mr. Ward for a number of years. He – oh, they would pull their hair out. They’d go crazy, sitting there waiting. You’ve got a live TV show, you’ve got no wrestlers, you’ve got no referee, and we’re all on the road trying to get there, but we could not leave Atlanta until we got through the Atlanta TV, and it was very close sometimes. Macon TV was on Thursday afternoons when I first started working for them. It was done from, like, 1 to 2 or 2 to 3; it was in the afternoon. I can’t remember exactly what time it started, but we were running Savannah, GA – which was another 175 miles south of Macon – and you had to, you couldn’t leave until you got through with that TV, so it made you push to get to Savannah on time. So that was those TV’s. One other TV they did for a while – we used to tape a TV at the Atlanta Wrestling Office; was in the old Atlanta Sports Arena and for years was used as a back-up to the Auditorium. If you couldn’t get the auditorium. They eventually started doing a TV there where they would – it was for Macon, it was for Albany, it was for Augusta, it was so we could send in the different tape other than that Atlanta TV tape, and we did that for a while on Tuesday afternoons. There again, sometimes we wouldn’t get out of there until 4 o’clock, and if you had to go to Albany that night, you had about 20 minutes to grab a hamburger and hit the road. So, it was – the TV, that was the TV’s we did, and they were, you were always pressed to get wherever you were going when you got through with them. The only time you weren’t in a hurry was after Columbus TV: because it was live, it was over at 5 o’clock, so you had 2 and half hours to get where you were going Saturday night, and the two towns we ran on Saturday were back toward Atlanta, so it wasn’t bad getting to those. You actually could sit down and eat a meal on Saturday night on the way.

Now, I guess since we’ve, you know – we’re a little younger and not from the area, basically – so we’ve never seen the Columbus or the Macon TV; just a couple matches. I mean, no more than 5. Describe for us…was it formatted differently at all? Were the angles that different, or did the programs overlap between the three shows? How exactly did that work?

Bobby: Well, you know, Fred Ward was - the Macon TV, the Columbus TV were his. There were times when Mr. Ward – as I’ve said, Leon Ogle, who was Fred’s son in law – booked Fred’s towns for a while and he did his own angles. Everything they did there was geared for Columbus, for Macon, for Albany. They would – angles were different, the top guys could be different, even. Bob Armstrong – I’m sure you’re familiar with, Bullet Bob. He wrestled for Continental, he’s been all over. But Bob and a guy named Bill Dromo – who, great friend of mine, but Bill was never a top guy here in Atlanta. They always used him opening to middle of the card, but in Columbus, Mr. Ward used Bill and Bob on top. They were like saints in those towns – people loved them in those towns, because Mr. Ward built his own angles and did his own thing! There were times that they would use the Atlanta booker to book the towns and run the whatever – lot of times it’d be a continuation of whatever we’re doing anywhere else. Columbus TV was filmed in the old Sports Arena in Columbus, which was an old warehouse. Someone told me it was used for a mule barn at one time, but it had bleachers. It would hold about 2000 people, they charged a dollar a piece to get into the live TV show on Saturday. They always drew 4/500 people, and if the Auditorium was unavailable, they would run Wednesday night house shows in the sports arena, so it was a good sized building. Macon TV was in a studio, and they were – that’s pretty much how it worked. Those tapes – those Columbus tapes – rumor has it they’re still around, but they’re salted away and they’re afraid to dig ‘em out and try to sell ‘em or do anything with them. They’re afraid that Vince might claim he owns them too, so, you know. Nobody thinks he does, but, you know – our lawyers are bigger than your lawyers, so I guess they’re afraid to try. Some of those Columbus tapes probably still exist.

Source: 6:05 SuperPodcast Wiki
https://605-superpodcast.fandom.com/wiki/Bobby_Simmons

See also: Man Behind the Mike: Jim Carlisle (Georgia)  
Carlisle hosted both the Columbus and Macon TV shows.
https://studiowrestling.blogspot.com/2016/04/man-behind-mike-jim-carlisle-ga.html

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.

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

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

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)