Rich Landrum Passes Away

Sad to report that Rich Landrum passed away quietly back on August 14. Rich is fondly remembered as the host of Jim Crockett Promotions' World Wide Wrestling syndicated wrestling show from October 1978 until early 1982. He was 77 years old.

Long time Richmond, Virginia fans will also remember Rich as the ring announcer in Richmond throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, introducing matches at the Richmond Fairgrounds at Strawberry Hill, the old Richmond Arena, and at the Richmond Coliseum.

His broadcasting career began in local radio and television in Richmond. He got his break in wrestling when attending matches at Strawberry Hill in 1971 with family and friends and the regular ring announcer didn't show up.  Promoter Joe Murnick asked him to fill in that night. Murnick liked him and began using him as his regular announcer from that point forward.

Rich Landrum interviews Ricky Steamboat on the set of World Wide Wrestling, circa 1978.

He replaced "Truckin'" Tom Miller as host of Wide World Wrestling in October of 1978. Jim Crockett had WRAL build a new set for the show and renamed the program World Wide Wrestling and Landrum debuted as its new host. 

After moving TV production from WRAL in Raleigh to WPCQ in Charlotte in the late summer of 1981, JCP balked at the ongoing expense of flying Landrum in from his home base in Richmond VA every week and asked him to begin driving it. Rich was unhappy with that arrangement which led to his eventual departure from the company in the early months of 1982. David Crockett assumed host duties of the show at that point, eventually joined by Tony Schiavone in 1984.  

Johnny Weaver and Rich Landrum

Landrum will likely be remembered best by fans for his on screen partnership with co-host (and legendary pro wrestler in that area in the 1960s and 1970s) Johnny Weaver. Landrum dubbed Weaver "the dean of professional wrestling" and the moniker stuck, and the two had great chemistry hosting the show together for several  years. 

Obituary on DignityMemorial.com

OTHER LINKS
More from the Studio Wrestling Website
WRAL Studio Page
WPCQ Studio Page
Rich Landrum related posts on the Studio Wrestling website

Jim Crockett Promotions Television Network - 1980

This page from a 1980 issue of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine lists the local affiliates of Jim Crockett's television network. These stations carried either Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling or World Wide Wrestling.

We actually think this list isn't complete, and may only reflect markets where Crockett was actually running shows and selling this magazine. It has been documented that there were stations in Florida, Texas, Michigan, and perhaps other locations during this era.

Also featured here are some great studio wrestling shots in front of the sets used from 1978-1981 at WRAL in Raleigh where the shows were taped every Wednesday night. Modified versions of the sets were used when the taping moved to WPCQ in Charlotte in August of 1981 until tapings moved into the arenas in July of 1983.

Local Promos in the WRAL Studio

This great studio shot from the WRAL TV studios in Raleigh, NC was featured in one of the Weston magazines in 1979.

Rich Landrum (host of "World Wide Wrestling" for Jim Crockett Promotions at the time) is conducting local promos for "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling." With him are NWA TV champion #1 Paul Jones, Greg Valentine, and Mid-Atlantic heavyweight champion Ken Patera.

Patera may be congratulating Jones for joining the right team in 1979, that being the "bad guys." Paul had recently been a victim of brutal betrayal from partner Ricky Steamboat in a 2-ring battle royal in Charlotte. (Or at least that's Paul's story. And to this day, he is sticking to it.)

Landrum was the longtime ring announcer in Richmond, VA, and hosted "World Wide Wrestling" from the fall of 1978 until early 1982.  In this photo he's either giving Paul the evil eye or, perhaps more likely, keeping an eye on the time clock.

I love seeing these shots from the old studios.

The backdrop seen here was the set used for "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" from 1974-1978. This old set, which was replaced with a new one in 1978, was used for the local insert promotional segments ("Let's take time for this commercial message about the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling events coming up in YOUR area...") until the summer of 1981 when Crockett moved TV production to WPCQ in Charlotte.

Rich Landrum and Ric Flair (1979)

Some rare footage of "World Wide Wrestling" host Rich Landrum and Ric Flair from 1979 in the WRAL studios. I believe this 1-minute segment was something recorded and sent to other territories where Ric would be appearing. Posted on Twitter by Kris Zellner.

Fun when new WRAL footage of any kind pops up out of nowhere.

27 year old Ric Flair in 1979 with Rich Landrum ready to take over the world pic.twitter.com/3OSNcxNNTI

— Kris Zellner (@KrisZellner) January 2, 2018

If the video will not play in your browser, go directly to Kris's tweet with this link:
https://twitter.com/KrisZellner/status/948267004997365760

Classic Studio Images: Rich Landrum with Dusty Rhodes

One of the things I loved most when I was a kid watching wrestling was when they would show a taped interview of a wrestler sent in from another territory's TV show. For some reason this was always very cool to me. It was a glimpse into another territory's TV studio, their announcer, their studio backdrop - - anything that gave a little of the flavor of that territory and their program.

Usually it was a tape of the reigning NWA world champion who was getting ready to tour the area and would send in a tape from where ever he happened to be at the moment. All of the NWA promotions cooperated with each other and would send tapes to each other in this regard. Other times it would be of a new or returning wrestler getting ready to come into the territory and he was sending in an interview from the territory he was getting ready to leave.

However, I never really thought about then that there were tapes recorded in our studio (Mid-Atlantic area) that were being sent to other territories, too. It obviously makes sense, but I just hadn't ever really thought about that side of it.

This image of Rich Landrum interviewing Dusty Rhodes is a great example of that. This was likely during the time Dusty was NWA world champion in 1981, and he was taping a promo while in the Mid-Atlantic area that would be sent to air on "Georgia Championship Wrestling" to promote a world title defense at the Omni in Atlanta.

The studio backdrop you see in this image was one of my personal favorites, and was used on "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" in the 1970s until it was replaced in 1977. But it was maintained for use during the local promotional spots taped the afternoon before the Wednesday night WRAL tapings until Crockett relocated their studio television tapings to Charlotte in August of 1981. One of those local promo taping sessions would be when this would have been taped. Rich Landrum wore a suit for those tapings, but would change into a tuxedo for the taping of the "World Wide Wrestling" show that he hosted from 1978-1982.

Television Wrestling History: WRAL-5 Raleigh, NC

WRAL TV in Raleigh is the studio location most closely associated with Jim Crockett Promotions and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. Studio A at WRAL was the site of weekly TV tapings for over three decades. By 1974, all of the remaining regional taping locations (WFBC, WGHP, WBTV) had ceased, and all Crockett TV taping was consolidated into this location.

At that point, two versions of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling were taped, one hosted by long time Raleigh announcer Bob Caudle, the other hosted briefly by Sam Menacker and then regularly by Les Thatcher. The Thatcher-hosted "B" show replaced WGHP's Championship Wrestling in markets where it was also syndicated at the time. (Example: Asheville's WLOS-TV).  On October 8, 1975, a new program called Wide World Wrestling, hosted by long time Atlanta wrestling announcer Ed Capral, replaced the Thatcher version of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. Thatcher would continue to do the local promo spots to be inserted in the local broadcast of each show. (Thatcher also produced and hosted the Southeastern Championship Wrestling program for Ron Fuller in Knoxville, TN. during this period.) Capral left the promotion in late 1977 and was replaced by Tom Miller and George Scott. On the weekend of October 7, 1978, Rich Landrum became the permanent host of the show, which was renamed World Wide Wrestling.

Bob Caudle's main co-host was David Crockett through the WRAL period. Tom Miller filled in during the summer of 1976 when David Crockett was tending to another family business with sister Frances Crockett, the Charlotte O's minor league baseball franchise. Big Bill Ward, who hosted Championship Wrestling for Crockett Promotions in Charlotte on WBTV from the late 1950s through early 1970s, briefly co-hosted with Bob Caudle on the 2nd Mid-Atlantic show after TV tapings had been consolidated to Raleigh. Lord Alfred Hayes had a brief stint as co-host in 1980.  Landrum's regular co-host on World Wide Wrestling would eventually be Johnny Weaver.

Prior to this consolidation, in the 1960s and early 1970s, WRAL was actually the site of one show only, a one-hour taping with simultaneous "dual" audio tracks being recorded. As they taped the matches, they had two broadcasters calling the action separately. Nick Pond, a WRAL sportscaster, hosted the show that would be seen in the Raleigh market (with co-host Joe Murnick much of that time, who was also the local Raleigh promoter), while at the same time one desk over, Bob Caudle called the action for a tape that was sent out to other markets in the Mid-Atlantic area that didn't have their own local TV tapings. Both Pond and Caudle also did sports and weather for WRAL television. Elliot Murnick replaced Pond on the Raleigh broadcast around 1972-1973. For most of this time, the Raleigh show was called Championship Wrestling and the syndicated show was called All-Star Wrestling. When all of the other studio locations ceased taping by 1974, Caudle became the sole host of what was now titled Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling which was now sent to all of Crockett's TV  markets including the home base of Raleigh.

Wrestling first debuted on WRAL on January 31, 1959 at 5:00 PM. The show at the time was titled Championship Wrestling. In the earliest days of wrestling on WRAL, the legendary broadcaster Ray Reeve called the wrestling action before turning over the duties to Pond, who was Reeve's assistant early in his career at WRAL. Reeve was the long time radio voice of the North Carolina State Wolfpack and was the first broadcaster inducted to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. (On a side note, Charlie Harville, the long time host of wrestling taped at WGHP in High Point NC in the 60s and 70s, was the 2nd broadcaster inducted into NC Sports Hall of Fame.) 

But the voice most associated with WRAL wrestling will forever be the one and only Bob Caudle, a long time employee and on-air personality at WRAL, who continued to do TV for the Crocketts when they moved production to WPCQ in Charlotte and then took the production out to the arenas. Caudle is still loved by wrestling fans today, recently receiving a standing ovation at a wrestling legends show in Spartanburg SC. He was an inaugural inductee into the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Hall of Heroes in August of 2007. Fans still call for his trademark show closer, "We'll see you next week fans, and until then, so long for now."

  - Dick Bourne

BASIC INFORMATION
Call Letters:	WRAL
Channel Number:	5
Network Affiliate:	ABC  (Originally NBC, now CBS)
Began Taping Wrestling:	Late 1950s Earliest known broadcast: January 31, 1959
Ceased Taping Wrestling:	July 29, 1981 (Final Taping)
Play-by-play Hosts:	MID-ATLANTIC WRESTLING: Raleigh telecast (1960s - approximately 1972): Ray Reeve, Nick Pond, Elliot Murnick Syndicated telecast: Bob Caudle, Les Thatcher, Sam Menacker (briefly) WIDE WORLD / WORLD WIDE WRESTLING: Ed Capral, Tom Miller, George Scott, Russ Debuq, Rich Landrum
Color Commentators:	MID-ATLANTIC WRESTLING: David Crockett, Tom Miller, Joe Murnick (Raleigh version only) Short term: Lord Alfred Hayes, Big Bill Ward. (There were brief runs by several others including Sandy Scott, Roddy Piper, and Sir Oliver Humperdink) WIDE WORLD / WORLD WIDE WRESTLING:: Johnny Weaver, George Scott, Tom Miller (There were brief appearances by several others.)
Ring Announcers:	Joe Murnick, Carl Murnick, Elliott Murnick, David Crockett, Jim Crockett
Local Promos:	Bob Caudle, David Crockett, Rich Landrum, Ed Capral, Les Thatcher, Bill Connell, a couple others yet identified. The famous commercial bump "Let's take time for this commercial message about the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling events coming up in your area..." was voiced by WRAL weatherman Bob Debardelaben.
Taping night:	Wednesday nights
Show titles:	Championship Wrestling, All Star Wrestling, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, Wide World Wrestling, World Wide Wrestling

Rich Landrum on World Wide Wrestling (1978)

Rich Landrum on the set of "World Wide Wrestling" at WRAL TV studios in Raleigh

This is one of the greatest photos of we have from inside WRAL-5 TV studios in Raleigh, the home of Jim Crockett Promotions television tapings from 1959-1981.

Rich Landrum, seen above opening another episode of World Wide Wrestling, graciously provided this photograph to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway when we did an interview with him several years ago.

The photo was taken not long after Rich began hosting the program in 1978. The show, which had also undergone a slight name change from Wide World Wrestling, began in 1975 and was originally hosted by legendary Atlanta wrestling announcer Ed Capral (who preceded Gordon Solie in Georgia.) Capral left in 1977 and was followed by Tom Miller until Rich was brought in from Richmond in the fall of 1978 to take over the show, which featured a revised name and brand new set, seen above. It was one of the sharpest, professional looking sets in all of televised wrestling at that time.

Johnny Weaver and Rich Landrum

Rich had a revolving door of co-hosts for months before settling in on legendary wrestler Johnny Weaver as his regular sidekick. Landrum dubbed Weaver "the Dean of Professional Wrestling" for the Mid-Atlantic area and the nickname stuck. Weaver was an instant hit as a color commentator with fans and was famous for singing "Turn Out the Lights, The Party's Over" after at least one match on almost every show during those years.

Landrum was the long time ring announcer in Richmond, VA at the Richmond Fairgrounds, Richmond Arena, and Richmond Coliseum. He lived in the Richmond area and continued in that role there while making the weekly Wednesday night trip to Raleigh to host World Wide Wrestling.

When the show moved to Charlotte in the summer of 1981, Landrum moved with it for about five months until parting ways with the company in early 1982. David Crockett replaced him as host, and was later followed by Tony Schiavone.

The new home of the wrestling tapings, WPCQ-36 in Charlotte, was a tiny little studio and the expansive set from WRAL would not completely fit, and so only sections of it were used in Charlotte.

Rich's photograph makes us really homesick for the friendly confines of WRAL, which I believe was the greatest studio environment for wrestling ever.

Audio Extra: Rich Landrum signs-off on "World Wide Wrestling"