On the February 14, 1976 episode of Jim Crockett Promotions' "Wide World Wrestling", host Ed Capral interviews NWA world champion Terry Funk. Funk was frustrated with the fact that Paul Jones held a victory over him which took place only a few weeks before Funk won the NWA title from Jack Brisco.
Funk calls out Paul Jones and a brief confrontation occurs. Jones had indeed defeated Funk for the United States Championship less than three months earlier and was the top contender in the Mid-Atlantic area for Funk's title.
This is classic audio and a classic Terry Funk promo.
Originally posted on October 12, 2012 on The Domed Globe website.
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"
I came across this image of an ad from a 1971 TV Guide magazine advertising the six o'clock news hour on WRAL-5 in Raleigh. The block was called Dateline News and was anchored locally by Sam Beard, with Bob Caudle doing his "Atlantic Weather Show" during the broadcast at 6:15 PM.
The ABC Evening News with Harry Reasoner and Howard K. Smith began at 6:20 PM and Jessie Helms finished things off at 6:50 with his Viewpoint Editorial segment.
WRAL was an ABC affiliate at this time. They became a CBS affiliate in 1985.
What a great photo of Bob! One I had not seen before in my days of collecting memorabilia about him for the Mid-Atlantic Gateway and associated blogsites.
There are several similar ads for various WRAL news, sports, and weather broadcasts featuring Bob on this site. Another Dateline ad can be found here. To see all posts here related to Bob, simply click Bob's name in the "Crockett On-Air Talent" list on the right side of this page.
Regarding Jessie Helms and wrestling connections, he would be elected to his first U.S. Senate term the following year. Bob Caudle would later work for Sen. Helms in his constituency office in Raleigh. Johnny Weaver, one of the Mid-Atlantic area's most popular wrestlers ever, did a TV and radio spot in support of Helms' candidacy for re-election in 1978.
The following short article is from a "Man Behind the Mike" feature in Wrestling Revue magazine in August of 1965. It spotlights the great career of Bob Caudle who was for the better part of three decades the voice of All-Star Wrestling, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, and NWA Pro Wrestling for Jim Crockett Promotions.
There are many posts on this blog about Bob, who was without question the voice most associated with Jim Crockett Promotions of all the on-air talent that worked for the company. See the "Crockett On-Air Talent" list on the right side of this page and click on Bob's name to filter posts just about him.
Although this article was originally published in 1965 (my goodness, 50 years ago this year!), it is one of the better features ever written about him in a wrestling publication.
[ WRESTLING REVUE ARTICLE ]
Bob Caudle interviews Sandy and George Scott on the set of "All Star Wrestling" at WRAL in 1965
Over the crowd's frenzied roar booms the confident voice of Bob Caudle who narrates the wild wrestling activity which is taped every Wednesday night at WRAL-TV, Raleigh, North Carolina. Wrestling is very big in Caudle's domain, which includes Richmond and Norfolk in Virginia, and Greenville, Charleston and Columbia in South Carolina.
Bob's show is called "All-Star Wrestling" and it is one of the most unique shows in the world since there is no charge for admission and it is not held in an arena. The scene of these year-round weekly battles is a studio at WRAL-TV. Seating is limited to 300 persons and tickets are issued free, just as they are for many other TV studio shows.
Wrestlers come from all over the world to take part in these shows despite the fact that there are no gate receipts and only a handful of spectators. Of course the TV audience is far greater than the combined fans of many arenas, and so far no one has heard the wrestlers complain about the pay.
Two video tapes are made at the same time. One is MC'd by Nick Pond for Raleigh viewers. The other is MC'd by Bob Caudle and shipped out to the cities already mentioned above.
Bob Caudle has been announcing "All-Star Wrestling" for two and a half years. Contributing greatly to he success of this show is Bob's personal interviews with the wrestlers. Through these, the TV audience gets to know the wrestlers more intimately which makes for more intense likes and dislikes. Especially popular (or unpopular) are the tag-teams that appear regularly on his show. Invariably the most hated villains draw the most viewers.
Sometimes Michael Caudle, 13, and Bobby Caudle, 9, accompany Dad to the show. So far they have shown no desire to get into the ring, but the addition of a couple of hundred pounds apiece may change that. Who knows, one day father Caudle may be announcing a new tag team the Killer Caudle Brothers.
Bob Caudle started in Radio in 1948 and added TV to his announcing talents in 1956. His radio play-by-play experience includes most sports and especially wrestling, baseball, football and basketball. He had his first live TV wrestling show from 1958 to 1959 in Savannah, Georgia.
In addition to handling sports, Bob is also an active member of the Channel Five news staff. He does the Atlantic Weather Show which is a regular part of the 6:00 to 7:00 P.M. news block called "Dateline." He also reports news of North Carolina and Raleigh, with "doings of the legislature" on "Late Dateline", which is aired every weekday evening from 11:00 to 11:30 P.M.
However, Bob Caudle's first love is "All-Star Wrestling" for this show is packed full of violent, unpredictable action and keeps him on his toes from start to finish.
[ END OF ARTICLE ]
Thanks to Pete Jarvis, via Carroll Hall, for providing the scanned image of the article. The article was from "Wrestling Revue" from August 1965.
Republished in July of 2022 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
The following short article is from a "Man Behind the Mike" feature in Wrestling Revue magazine in October of 1965. It spotlights the great career of George Abel who was for many years the voice of Sam Muchnick's Wrestling at the Chase in St. Louis. The program aired on KPLR and at the time of this article originated from the Chase Hotel in St. Louis.
Great names from wrestling's past also mentioned in the article include Sam Muchnick, Jack Brickhouse, Lou Thesz, Wild Bill Longson, and Joe Garagiola. (Video is also included in this feature following the article.)
[ WRESTLING REVUE ARTICLE ]
From Wrestling Revue Magazine, October 1965
GEORGE ABEL is one of the most knowledgeable and popular wrestling commentators, whose "Wrestling at the Chase" programs, are television highlights of the mid-West. When you hear the clear, corn-posed, calm and articulate Abel announcing the mat shows, you'd never suspect it, but George claims that he was once one of the world's worst stutterers.
Abel finds it hard to explain, but presumes that his desire to become an announcer must have been stronger than the reason for the speech defect. The impediment disappeared just as his broadcasting career was begun.
Since November 1963 Abel has been reigning over the KPLR microphone, broadcasting the wrestling matches from St. Louis, Mo. He had some misgivings when he took over the program. "I was attempting to fill a large pair of shoes, since one of my predecessors was the inimitable Joe Garagiola, who replaced Mel Allen in the broadcasting of the N.Y. Yankees' ballgames," he confessed. "However, I'm proud to say our ratings are now bigger and better than ever."
Wrestling has never been presented in more plush surroundings than for this show. "Wrestling at the Chase" is staged in the ornate Khorassan Room of St. Louis' finest hotel, the Chase-Park Plaza. Weekly 1,500 patrons attend by invitation only and during the telecasts, the fans enjoy the matches with food and beverages.
Abel is a veteran of broadcasting and the stage. He began his radio and television careers in 1941, working as an announcer on many sports shows. While a station staff announcer, he used to watch the telecasts of Jack Brickhouse's wrestling shows from the Marigold Gardens, in Chicago. George was fascinated and impress-ed, admits he actually learned wrestling terminology from Brickhouse.
Several years ago Abel was able to put his wrestling knowledge to use, doing the hold-by-hold commentary for Sam Muchnick, a top-notch promoter who is also the president of the National Wrestling Alliance.
Muchnick's Saturday night wrestling shows were televised over a Missouri-Illinois network.
When it was decided to originate a TV wrestling show from St. Louis, Abel won the audition from among a number of candidates. He received considerable help from such wrestling greats as NWA champion Lou Thesz and former champ, Wild Bill Longson.
Abel is married and the father of two boys, nine and eleven years old.
His score of years before the mike includes many local radio and TV shows. He has been starred as an actor on a kiddie TV program, "The Wranglers," in the role of Drygulch. Abel had a fling for a year on the stage with the famed Barter Theatre, in Virginia, and appeared opposite Dolores Grey as "Sitting Bull" in the St. Louis Municipal Opera production of "Annie Get Your Gun," plus many appearances with the local Community Playhouse.
Abel is most articulate and capable at the mike. We can hardly believe that he ever stuttered, but he says he did!
[ END OF ARTICLE ]
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Here is some rare video from "Wrestling at the Chase" featuring the play-by-play voice of George Abel. By this point in time, the television tapings had moved from the Khorassan ballroom to a smaller TV studio.
The "Championship Wrestling" art that would appear bumping in and out of commercial breaks on KPLR in the 1960s
* * * * *
Thanks as always to Carroll Hall for providing the scanned image of the article for us. The article was from "Wrestling Revue" Volume 6, Issue 6 from October 1965. Subscription rates in 1965 were $3.00....per year!
Tom Miller and Ric Flair in the Greensboro Coliseum
This is a very low resolution pulp-magazine photo of Greensboro ring announcer Tom Miller and United States heavyweight champion Ric Flair in the ring at the Greensboro Coliseum before a title defense against Ricky Steamboat in 1978.
Miller was also a TV personality for Jim Crockett Promotions from 1976-1978, working in the television studios of WRAL-TV in Raleigh. He was co-host of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling with Bob Caudle in the summer of 1976 while usual co-host David Crockett was busy with the new family baseball business. In 1977 he followed Ed Capral as host of Wide World Wrestling, usually working with co-host George Scott, until Rich Landrum came in as host in October of 1978, when the title of the show was changed to World Wide Wrestling.
Miller is probably Jim Crockett Promotions' most famous ring announcer, being on many of the TV shows during the TV expansion years beginning in 1984 when Crockett TV went from a regional outfit in the Carolinas and Virginia to a nationally syndicated network by 1987.
For more on Truckin' Tom Miller, see this earlier post on the Studio Wrestling Scrapbook.
As I continue to collect tidbits written about my favorite Mid-Atlantic Wrestling arena ring announcer Tom Miller, the following is an excerpt from a blog post by H.A. Thompson with a memory about Truckin' Tom:
"40 years ago in 1975, I took over Ty Boyd’s morning show on WBT and he went into motivational speaking full time. At the time, the all night DJ was Truckin’ Tom Miller, who played country music, and ended his show at 6am when I arrived. Sometimes, he would hang around and we would kibitz for a half hour. Truckin’ Tom was a character!
His friends would drop off a pint of booze with the night watchman and he would deliver it to Tom. By the time I arrived, Tom was full of himself and feeling no pain. He had an incredible poetry talent. He could write a humorous poem in 5 minutes. He played the character of Professor Tillman Le Dino…a name that came from a fertilizer manufacturer. Get it? A good ole Southern Mississippi man from Mississippi Southern University."
From H.A. Thompson's post titled "Ty Boyd is not a person but a state of mind…" from his blog "Do Something Scary." The entire post is here.
Tom was a legendary character, both on local radio in North Carolina and Virginia, as well in the world of pro-wrestling in the Carolinas in the 1970s and 1980s. More about Tom Miller on this blog here.
Here is a nice "TV Sports" column by Bob Gillespie from the Charleston Post & Courier in 1978 about the high ratings and impact of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and World Wide Wrestling during that era.
I laugh when I read today about how currently popular wrestling is. It's for sure a bigger business today, but it is no where near as popular today as it was years ago. Just witness the 52% share that wrestling got on WCBD-2 in Charleston. Les Thatcher has told us about similar shares his Mid-Altlantic wrestling show got in the mid-1970s on WLOS-13 in Asheville, NC. Jim Crockett Promotions programming was pullings amazing ratings and shares back then and had been for years. Similar stories could be found in other promotions across the country as well.
So kudos to Bob Gillespie for helping educate the unknowing general public about that in 1978.
Gillespie does a great job in getting his facts straight about Crockett Promotions at the time, something most sports writers or TV-writers covering wrestling would never bother with.
Some nice information here includes:
(1) Mentions of local promoter Henry Marcus and the local venue County Hall.
(2) The main promoter Jim Crockett Promotions and their local promoter in Roanoke VA Sandy Scott
(3) TV originating form the studios of WRAL in Raleigh, NC
(4) The barter relationship between the local TV stations and JCP
(5) A mention of Sandy Scott promoting Greenville SC before Roanoke
(6) The first TV stations to carry wrestling for Jim Crockett - WDBJ-7 in Roanoke, VA and WFBC-4 in Greenville, SC.
Thanks to Carroll Hall for forwarding this article to me, and to Peggy Lathan for transcribing it for us. Here is the text of the article (emphasis within the text is mine.) Enjoy!
Wresting Audience
Greatly Expanded by TV
By Bob Gillespie
Charleston, SC - September 23, 1978
For several months now, I’ve followed this TV sports column
and I have yet to see anything written on what has to be one of the tube’s most
successful enterprises 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 of 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.
