memories of studio wrestling

[bhayes1016]

Weren't some of the announcers also station employees? From what I understand Dave Brown was a weatherman at WMC as was Bob Cauudle at WRAL. I also believe Freddie Miller was a staff announcer at channel 17 at one point.

Reisor Bowden of Mid-South was the booth announcer at KTBS, Shreveport.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Weren't some of the announcers also station employees? From what I understand Dave Brown was a weatherman at WMC as was Bob Cauudle at WRAL. I also believe Freddie Miller was a staff announcer at channel 17 at one point.

Dave Brown was the weatherman at WHBQ 13 in Memphis when wrestling was there, and when it moved to WMC 5, he moved to being their weatherman as well. He just recently celebrated 30 years at WMC.

 

[LKellerIII]

"Weren't some of the announcers also station employees? From what I understand Dave Brown was a weatherman at WMC as was Bob Cauudle at WRAL. I also believe Freddie Miller was a staff announcer at channel 17 at one point."

Wrestling aside, this was pretty common in the 50s and 60s. On-air talent did at least double-duty, as kid show hosts, weathermen, staff-announcing, or whatever was needed. At KTTV Los Angeles, John Rovick was the staff announcer of many years, and was host of the "Lunch Bridgade" kids show as "Sheriff John."

At KTVU San Francisco, for many years, Pat McCormick (not the same Pat McC as the Tonight Show) hosted the Dialing for Dollars Movie at 1:00 PM, and was also the weatherman on the 10:00 O'Clock News...a long day. This only stopped when he retired...in the early 90s, I think.

At KTLA, "Wrestling from the Olympic" host Dick Lane (a minor actor) was the announcer/host for most of the stations other "sporting" events, including Roller Derby and the Demolition Derby on Saturday afternoons. Earlier in this thread, somebody pointed out that Lane coined the exclamation "Whoa, Nellie," which Keith Jackson later adopted.

 

[RicoGregg]

One of the more unusual double-duty announcers I've known about was a guy named Walt Harris. I don't know where he was based out of, or anything about his background, but I do know that in the 60s:

He did the syndicated version of Roller Derby, featuring the San Francisco Bay Area Bombers, featuring Charlie O'Connell, Joannie Weston, and Ann Cavello. In Los Angeles, this was shown every Saturday night. Los Angeles was a very strong territory for Roller Derby's main rival, Roller Games, which featured the L.A. Thunderbirds. They must have reached some kind of detente', because later on, Roller Derby teams started appearing in L.A. against the T-Birds.

At the same time, Harris was the announcer for a Minneapolis-based wrestling outfit. I don't remember if it was the forerunner to Verne Gagne's AWA or not. I do remember that it featured a bunch of wrestlers that I never heard of and don't remember today. Back then, L.A. was a territory that belonged to the NWA, and featured Freddie Blassie, the Destroyer, and Don Leo Jonathan, among many others. What was funny was that they made special segments for L.A., saying that they were coming soon, and some of the villian wrestlers would say things like "L.A., you're a bunch of pansies. Step aside when you see me coming!" This was way before the days when Vince McMahon took wrestling corporate and national. The general rule was that if you ran a wrestling company, you did NOT step on another's territory. To the best of my memory, this outfit never did "invade" Los Angeles.

 

[Derek Smalls]

I know that, beginning in the late 60's/early 70's, the old WWWF (pre-WWE) shows used to be alternate bewteen two places for TV tapings, although neither of them were in studios. A majority of the shows were shot at the Hamburg Field House, just outside of Reading, PA. The other location was the old Philadelphia Arena, which burnt down to the ground sometime around 1980. The Arena is where the infamous Muhammed Ali/Gorilla Monsoon altercation took place in 1976. I believe they stopped tapings at the Hamburg Fieldhouse sometime around 1984/85, when the WWF began their expansion to take over the wrestling universe.

 

[Ultimajock]

One of the more unusual double-duty announcers I've known about was a guy named Walt Harris. I don't know where he was based out of, or anything about his background, but I do know that in the 60s:

He did the syndicated version of Roller Derby, featuring the San Francisco Bay Area Bombers, featuring Charlie O'Connell, Joannie Weston, and Ann Cavello. In Los Angeles, this was shown every Saturday night. Los Angeles was a very strong territory for Roller Derby's main rival, Roller Games, which featured the L.A. Thunderbirds. They must have reached some kind of detente', because later on, Roller Derby teams started appearing in L.A. against the T-Birds.

At the same time, Harris was the announcer for a Minneapolis-based wrestling outfit. I don't remember if it was the forerunner to Verne Gagne's AWA or not. I do remember that it featured a bunch of wrestlers that I never heard of and don't remember today.

...as Gagne cranked up the AWA in '57 or '58, I'm pretty sure that would have been a competitor rather than a forerunner to the AWA. In the '60s and '70s, each of the AWA guys (Marty O'Neill, Rodger Kent, Gene Okerlund) were also utility announcers for either WTCN-TV or WMIN Radio (O'Neill's "official" photo in the AWA house show magazine was an old one of him, sans sunglasses, sitting in front of a microphone with a WMIN banner across the top). Kent also did an outdoors sports (fishing, hunting, etc.) show for WTCN and Okerlund voiced mail-order record package spots featuring the recordings of polka legend Whoopie John Wilfahrt...

 

[snorlax]

When I first arrived at Indiana U from NY City in 1969-70, wrestling was on WTTV channel 4 in Indianapolis/Bloomington--shot, I believe, in the Bluff Road studio and/or at the Tyndall Armory.
Hosted by Chuck Workman (who did double duty as a radio jazz host until recently) with the announcing of "Slammin'" Sammy Menacker (an unheralded example of regional wrestling announcing)...Bruiser, Crusher, Cowboy Bob Ellis, Pepper Gomez, Wilbur Snyder (the world's most scientific wrestler), Ernie Ladd (Favorite line: "You profess to be a man of intelligence, Mr. TV Announcer...), Blackjacks (Mulligan & Lanza), various combinations of Valiant Brothers, and BOBBY HEENAN. He was genuinely funny and is in real bad shape these days.
For a city kid who grew up on Bruno Sammartino and Madison Square Garden, the regional territory wrestling was a real revelation! Sammartino eventually passed through the Indy-Chicago territory and had a great feud with Ernie Ladd.

TRIVIA: Sammy Menacker had a bit part in what (sorta) well-known movie?