Local TV stars who had the chance to be seen nationwide...but didn't

[bk77]

Years ago I was reading in some TV trivia book about WLWT Cincinatti's Ruth Lyons. Back in the 50s and 60s she was the host of the local 50/50 Club. Back in the 50's NBC (?) offered Ruth the chance to make her show go from just Cincinatti to nationwide. However Ruth was quite happy just having her show be a local one. Oddly I believe Bob Braun ( same city and station ) in the 80s was given the chance to have his regional talk show go nationwide too. But like Lyons, Braun said no.

Any other examples of this?

I can think of only two.

Bob McAllister who hosted New York City's Wonderama, I seem to recall Metromedia wanted to syndicatethat show nationwide on stations not owned by Metromedia. But for some reason that never happened though Wonderama was seen in a few markets coast to coast but only on those stations owned by Metromedia.

KUSA/KBTV Denver's Paula Woodward. Well known in Colorado for her "9 wants to know" features. In one of my old TV Guides from the late 80's there was a small story that appeared in there where "plans" were made for Paula Woodward and her "9 wants to know" to go nationwide by 1990. I guess the idea was to make Paula Woodward a female David Horowitz who was popular at the time for his "Fight Back" show. According to KUSA's website Paula Woodward is still with KUSA and "9 wants to know" is still around so I assume either Paula didn't want to leave Denver or that whoever wanted to make Paula a nationwide star had lost interest.

 

[WMC2006]

I vaguely (very vaguely) recall that WCVB/Boston's Natalie Jacobson, who retired last year after 35 years, was given a chance or chances to go national at some point in her career. I do recall some years ago that she did sub on Good Morning America when GMA was in Boston and Joan Lunden was out sick. Natalie got an early morning call and did the show with Charlie Gibson. She and former husband and co-anchor, Chet Curtis, also appeared briefly on GMA during a GMA stint in Boston although I dont know if that was the same week.

WCVB has several alumni who HAVE gone national. Former reporter Martha (Bradlee) Raddatz is ABC's chief White House correspondent. Former weekend anchor and reporter David Muir is an ABC anchor and reporter. Dr. Tim Johnson is ABC's and WCVB's medical editor. Consumer reporter Paula Lyons went from WCVB to ABC/GMA for the same position. She later went back to local in Boston as WBZ's consumer reporter. WBZ, some years later, dumped her and she sued for age discrimination.

 

[azumanga]

Bob McAllister who hosted New York City's Wonderama, I seem to recall Metromedia wanted to syndicatethat show nationwide on stations not owned by Metromedia. But for some reason that never happened though Wonderama was seen in a few markets coast to coast but only on those stations owned by Metromedia.

Bob did go national after leaving Wonderama to host a similar show for ABC, "Kids are People Too". However, after a few months, he left that and was replaced by Michael Young.

 

[ROBGv1]

Bob Lobel moved from WBZ4 to NBC Sports.

 

[WMC2006]

Bob Lobel moved from WBZ4 to NBC Sports.

Bob Lobel never moved to NBC. He may have done some occasional work for them but he was always at WBZ until just a few weeks ago when the company bought out the remainder of his contract. He did have a chance some years ago to go national with either NBC or CBS but chose to stay local. Thank God for that. In my opinion, he is one of the worst anchor/sportscasters ever.

On the other hand, former WBZ sportscaster Bob Neumeier did, in fact, go national and works for NBC sports, usually regarding horseracing. He has also, in the past, hosted is own show on Boston's WEEI.