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Memorable Local Or Regional Television Commericals

O

ohdxer

What were the most memorable local or regional television commericals that you do remember watching on television?

During the 1970's, I remember the cable tv systems in Columbus carrying WUAB-43 and WKBF-61 from Cleveland and WXIX-19 from Cincinnati.

I remember seeing the C. Miller Chevrolet ads on WUAB. At the end of every ads, I remember C. Miller saying "See the world and the USA in a C. Miller Chevrolet" and he always threw a kiss with his hands.

I also remember the Kash Amburgey furniture store ads that aired regurlary on WXIX.

As for local ads on Columbus television stations, I remember the end of the Bobby Layman Chevrolet ads with Bobby Layman saying "Three Nine Oh Oh West Broad".

I also remember seeing many Ricart Fords ads ending with their "We're Dealing!" slogan.

And I also remember the end of many Bill Swad Chevrolet ads with Bill Swad saying "Come see us at Bill Swad Chevrolet".
 
From Virginia & Maryland...

Baltimore's WBFF channel 45 in their pre-FOX days did a promo for themselves with the jingle "We have something good for you...W B F F...Television Forty Five" showing the nice side of Baltimore such as the Inner Harbor and the old Memorial Stadium for example.

There was a cartoon ad I can recall for all of the car dealerships that were located on Richmond's Broad Street set to the oldie tune "South Street" by the Orlons with the title changing to well "Broad Street" in the ad.

Hampton/Norfolk's WVEC channel 13 did a promo for themselves shot in a supermarket where all the staff of the store and WVEC as well as some customers singing "..we're taking it to the top with channel 13 !!".

Hagerstown, Maryland....the ad for WLTF "Lite 97.5". Husband is in the shower and gets out wrapped in a towel holding an unlit cigarette asking his wife for a "light". The wife responds "..how about LITE ninety seven five instead..continuous light favorites" and she turns on the radio to WLTF and the hubby and wife were all smiles ".

Don't remember the legal firm in DC/Baltimore who had the ad but I do remember their tag "...you have a phone ?? you got a lawyer !!".

Dick Van Dyke dancing around and singing on the rides at Kings Dominion theme park north of Richmond and baseball great Cal Ripkin more/less doing the same at Adventure World which is now Six Flags America.
 
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There could easily be a spin-off thread dealing with memorable local/regional CAR DEALER adverts, alone!!

I'll throw out a handful from my own recollections:

1) The WBFF 45 promos Hamster mentioned quickly bring to mind WTOG 44 in Tampa/St. Pete, Fla. An awesome independent years ago, on the cable in Sarasota (where we used to go on family beach vacations). Their station IDs featured a jingle - "WTOG, as far as the eye can seeee!" - and an animated graphic really good for its time, two faces looking upward (they resembled a couple of Pac-Mans), morphing into the "44" logo. Video was of scenes around the TSP region.

2) A (former) Kentucky-based fast-food chain called Burger Queen. Their mascot was a woman in a hideous bee getup, with the name "Queenie Bee." One commercial in the late '70s comes to mind, she wraps it up with "B-U-R-G-E-R, Q-U-E-E-N" ... one of the kids looks up from his burger combo, going, "Huuuuhhh?" She replies, "Haven't you ever heard of a spelling bee?" *facepalm*

3) Springfield Ford in Rincon, Ga. Rarely aired on local Savannah TV, but was frequently seen on local commercial inserts on the area cable systems. Owner was a short older guy with a thick German accent, who would point to the screen as he said their slogan: "Who do YOU know that vants to buy a Splingfield Ford??" Production values were *hideous*.

4) Red Holland. That by itself is a goldmine of "memorable" .... he was (maybe still is?) a TV hunting/fishing show personality based in the Florida panhandle. Over the years, he's done shows on Panama City's WJHG 7, and especially on WTVY 4 in Dothan, Ala. (close to the Fla. line). Hosted a weekend show called "Outdoors With Red", but his early morning show "Good Morning Tri-States" was its own kind of memorable. His theme song - Ray Stevens' Henhouse Five version of "In the Mood" with the clucking chickens - couldn't have been more appropriate.

Anyway, Red did most of the commercials for the show himself. Remember the old "Crazy Eddie" character? Imagine Crazy Eddie with a fishing cap, flannel shirt and a deep Southern accent. Red didn't read copy, he screamed it. From all I've gathered, it wasn't a parody -- it was real. And people in that part of Alabama, Georgia and Florida practically worshiped the guy. It was insane.

--Russell
 
TriangleTriadMediaNews said:
Saiontz and Kirk is the law firm you're thinking of, those commercials used to freak me out as a kid, especially that empty phone booth.
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THAT IS IT !!

Oh forgot one...the woman with the mouth for Washington's WRQX Q107. Very popular ad from the late 70s and early 80s. When she opened her mouth out came the voices of all the Q107 jocks at the time including Dude Walker and Doug Limrick. ABC owned the station at the time.


q1071.jpg
 
hamster said:
THAT IS IT !!
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That wasn't the only cool Baltimore lawyer spot. Stephen L. Miles appeared on spots for his firm. He'd verbally sign each spot with, "Let's talk about it."

Then there was the law firm former *Baltimore* Colts defensive lineman Bubba Smith (RIP) pitched (in the first few years after the Colts moved to Indy): Cohen, Snyder, McClellan, Eisenberg and Katzenberg. Smith would say, "A great team that's still in Baltimore!"

Elsewhere in the Charm City economy, a Baltimore-area electronics chain (that IIRC was bought out) of yore was Luskin's. "The cheapest guy in town!" Bill(?) Luskin was Baltimore's version of metro NYC's Crazy Eddie, though not quite as crazy.

ixnay
 
davect said:
We saw the Carvel commercials in the Boston market too. In fact, I remember that EXACT commercial you linked to!
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Carvel advertised in the Philly DMA too.

I finally had Carvel ice cream at their Bethpage, Long Island store in 2013 when visiting a friend in that village.

ixnay
 
In Charleston market, Gerald's Tires has had some very memorable commercials. They had a commercial of the workers dancing to "Singing in the Rain."

Another one of their commercials has been airing since the early 1990s. You still see the view of a NationsBank ATM, and they were working on a Toyota Cressida (which hasn't been manufactured since 1992). They still play this commercial locally.

https://youtu.be/5QCuixgn3aQ
 
hamster said:
THAT IS IT !!

Oh forgot one...the woman with the mouth for Washington's WRQX Q107. Very popular ad from the late 70s and early 80s. When she opened her mouth out came the voices of all the Q107 jocks at the time including Dude Walker and Doug Limrick. ABC owned the station at the time.


View attachment 883
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I (as did other age 20-something guys) liked WLUP Chicago's Lorelei in the late 1970s. She used her own voice, however.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0ENQhHdkEN0/hqdefault.jpg
 
ixnay said:
Elsewhere in the Charm City economy, a Baltimore-area electronics chain (that IIRC was bought out) of yore was Luskin's. "The cheapest guy in town!" Bill(?) Luskin was Baltimore's version of metro NYC's Crazy Eddie, though not quite as crazy.

ixnay
Click to expand...

On further reflection, I think Mr. Luskin's first name was Jack.

ixnay
 
Where to begin? Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio. Concord City "See You Please". King Kwik. BHA Appliances with Emmert Royer and his little pocket dog, Toby.
 
Good's Furniture (Kewanee, IL--Henry County) ads have been a staple of Quad Cities (Kewanee's DMA) and Peoria TV advertising for about 40 years. Here's one of them that aired on WYZZ-43 (Bloomington/Peoria--Fox) ca. 1990:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlw20K_IDJo

I have also heard that the Good's ads have also aired on Rockford TV for decades--and in about the last 15-20 years or so they have reached the Champaign/Decatur/Springfield DMA via frequent airings on ABC stations WICS-20 Springfield/WICD-15 Champaign.

Considering that one could drive to Kewanee from Joliet/south suburbs in about 2 hours or so via I-80 (plus most of the LaSalle County part of the Chicago DMA being less than a hour from Kewanee), have Good's Furniture commercials ever aired on Chicago stations--perhaps even on WGN during their superstation/pre-syndex era?
 
I've never seen that Pacific Power Kiteman ad before. But of course, being somewhat younger than most of you on here, not surprised. The commercial had a copyright of 1978 on it.
Seattle had United Furniture Warehouse and Jack Roberts Appliance back in the day. Oh, and Cal Worthington Ford in Federal Way ("Go See Cal, Go See Cal").

All of the memorable ads in Yakima today are quite stupid. Yakima Watermill and the fake CGI penguin "pushing" the owner into a pool. Gag me. Mariano Morales and his endless number of commercials, all of which are too cheesy to describe. The worst being a talking truck a couple of years ago. The most common one nowadays seems to be Mariano and his ghost after dying in a motorcycle crash. None are on YT except for his earliest ones, which yours truly posted. It was him talking about why you should have him as your attorney. No cheesy nonsense.
Here's a commercial compilation for the old K68EB Fox in 1994 - there's an ad for Sunburst Video on it that looks like those old Sesame Street bumpers in the 1970s - the two outlines of the people sounding out words...instead, they're arguing about the movie genre they want to rent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJbExOoV_AQ
 
ixnay said:
On further reflection, I think Mr. Luskin's first name was Jack.

ixnay
Click to expand...


Correct..his name was Jack Luskin. Despite being a Baltimore chain Luskins had a number of stores in Virginia as well I believe as far south as Richmond though they may very well had a store or two in the Hampton Roads (Norfork/Virginia Beach/Newport News ) region but that I am not sure. Since in those days many in Virginia would watch Baltimore TV it wasn't like that Luskins was an unknown chain to them anyway.

Another memorable ad from back in the day I can remember was for Washington DC's 99.5 WGAY-FM when they played "beautiful music". The ads I can remember the most featured owner ( or maybe he was the GM ) the late Bob Chandler. Ted Knight from TV's Too Close for Comfort I can recall doing an ad for some AM "music of your life" radio station in Norfolk. In the ad Ted looks into the camera while holding up a rock and says "..yes I know some of you guys like rock...but I don't"..he then throws the rock and off camera one heard a sound of smashing glass. Considering that I saw this ad on WVEC-TV in the spring of 1986 and Ted would pass away shortly later on in the summer of 86 I have to wonder if this was the last thing Ted Knight had done before his death.
 
Having grown up in Houston, have to mention Gallery Furniture and the funny ads hosted by owner Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhuIPJGViQ0

On a side note, here in Spartanburg, there's a furniture store called Mattress Max, which completely ripped off Gallery Furniture, from their name, right down to their "Save you moneeeeey!" tagline. I wonder if Jim McIngvale knows about them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yxRX6-bEg

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Couldn't find a video of it online, but when I lived in Rockford, IL, around 2007 or 2008, there was a commercial for an auto repair shop called "Butitta Brothers" which showed a mother and her young son taking their car to Butitta Brothers. As they pulled in, the kid kept laughing and mispronouncing the name of the shop. If I remember correctly, it went something like this:

Kid: "Look, B-U-T! That spells butt!"
Mom: "No it doesn't, it says Butitta Brothers."
Kid: "Butt - titta!"
Mom: "STAWWP!"

Then they walk into the shop.

Mechanic: "Hi, welcome to Butitta Brothers."
Kid laughs.
Mechanic: "What's so funny?"
Kid: "That says but-"
Mom puts hand over kid's mouth.
Mechanic: "But that's not how you say it."
 
Grew up in Seattle in the 90s.The Sleep Country USA commercials with Sunny Kobe Cook from the 90's. And The Bon Marche Day-O ads you couldn't get the jingles out of your head if you wanted to
 
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