Retro: Kentucky Monday, October 12, 1970

[bpatrick]

From TV Guide, Kentucky Edition:

NOTE: This is supposed to be a World Series travel day.
If there was a rainout over the weekend a game would
be played at 1 PM, preceded by a pregame show at 12:30
on NBC (Chs. 3, 5, 18).

WAVE Ch. 3 Louisville (NBC)

6:45 Today In Louisville
7 AM Today
9 AM Morning Show
9:55 News
10 AM Dinah's Place
10:30 Concentration
11 AM Sale Of The Century (Jack Kelly was still
hosting)
11:30 Hollywood Squares
12 N Jeopardy! (Art Fleming)
12:30 Who, What Or Where
12:55 NBC News (Floyd Kalber)
1 PM Mike Douglas
2 PM Days Of Our Lives
2:30 The Doctors
3 PM Another World
3:30 Bright Promise
4 PM Movie: "Agent For H.A.R.M."
5:30 Flintstones
6 PM News
6:30 NBC News (may have still been in the
Chancellor/Brinkley/Newman format)
7 PM Petticoat Junction
7:30 Red Skelton (his final season)
8 PM Rowan And Martin's Laugh-In
9 PM NBC Movie: "Lady L"
11:15 News
11:45 Tonight Show (Sammy Davis Jr. subs for
Johnny.)

WLWT Ch. 5 Cincinnati (NBC)

6:15 Moment Of Meditation
6:20 Good Morning
6:30 University Of Michigan
7 AM Today
9 AM Paul Dixon
10:30 Concentration
11 AM Sale Of The Century
11:30 Hollywood Squares
12 N Bob Braun's 50-50 Club
1:30 Words And Music
2 PM Days Of Our Lives
2:30 The Doctors
3 PM Another World
3:30 Bright Promise
4 PM Phil Donahue
5 PM Star Trek
6 PM News
6:30 NBC News
7 PM News
7:30 Red Skelton
8 PM Rowan And Martin's Laugh-In
9 PM Movie: "Madame X"
11 PM News
11:45 Tonight Show (doesn't say if there
was anything between 11:30 and
11:45...both 5 and 18 pre-empted
NBC's movie)

WCPO Ch. 9 Cincinnati (CBS)

5:50 Farm News
6 AM Sunrise Semester: "Urban Man"
6:30 Young World
7 AM CBS News (John Hart)
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Uncle Al
10:30 Beverly Hillbillies (Phil Silvers appears
as con man Shifty Shafer)
11 AM Search For Tomorrow
11:30 Love Of Life
12 N News
12:30 Nick Clooney
1:30 As The World Turns
2 PM Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
2:30 Guiding Light
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 Edge Of Night
4 PM Movie: "Man Without A Star"
5:55 Republican Political Talk (Ohio gubernatorial
election, perhaps?)
6 PM News
6:30 CBS News (Walter Cronkite)
7 PM Truth Or Consequences
7:30 Gunsmoke
8:30 Here's Lucy
9 PM Mayberry R.F.D.
9:30 Doris Day
10 PM Carol Burnett
11 PM News
11:30 Merv Griffin (then at CBS)
1 AM Christophers
1:15 News

WHAS Ch. 11 Louisville (CBS)

6:30 Sunrise Semester
7 AM CBS News
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Beat The Clock (Louisville native
Jack Narz was host)
9:30 Edge Of Night
10 AM The Lucy Show
10:30 Beverly Hillbillies
11 AM Family Affair
11:30 Love Of Life
12 N Where The Heart Is
12:25 CBS News (Douglas Edwards)
12:30 Search For Tomorrow
1 PM News
1:30 As The World Turns
2 PM Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
2:30 Guiding Light
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 My Favorite Martian
4 PM Gomer Pyle, USMC
4:30 Perry Mason
5:30 Dick Van Dyke
6 PM News
7 PM CBS News
7:30 Gunsmoke
8:30 Here's Lucy
9 PM Mayberry R.F.D.
9:30 Doris Day
10 PM Carol Burnett
11 PM News
11:30 Merv Griffin

WKRC Ch. 12 Cincinnati (ABC)

7 AM TBA
7:30 Jonny Quest (delay from Sun 10 AM)
8 AM Skipper Ryle And Bozo
9 AM Movie: "Untamed Youth" (Part 1)
9:50 Fashions In Sewing (Lucille Rivers)
10 AM Dinah's Place (pre-empted on Ch. 5)
10:30 Galloping Gourmet
11 AM News
11:30 That Girl
12 N Bewitched
12:30 A World Apart
1 PM All My Children
1:30 Let's Make A Deal
2 PM Newlywed Game
2:30 Dating Game
3 PM General Hospital
3:30 Munsters
4 PM Dark Shadows
4:30 Big Valley
5:30 David Frost
7 PM News
7:30 Young Lawyers
8:30 Silent Force
9 PM NFL Football: Packers-Chargers
12 M News (time approximate)
12:30 Dick Cavett
1 AM News

WKPC Ch. 15 Louisville (PBS)

7:30 Sesame Street
8:30 TBA
8:35 In-school programs
2:30 TBA
3:30 Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
4 PM Sesame Street
5 PM What's New
5:30 Children's Fair
6 PM Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
6:30 What's New
7 PM Homewood
8 PM World Press
9 PM Fanfare
10 PM Book Beat
10:30 Flick-Out
sign off 11 PM

WLEX Ch. 18 Lexington (NBC)

7 AM Today
9 AM Steve Allen
10 AM Dinah's Place
10:30 Concentration
11 AM Sale Of The Century
11:30 Hollywood Squares
12 N News
12:30 Who, What Or Where
12:55 NBC News
1 PM Jeopardy!
1:30 Words And Music
2 PM Days Of Our Lives
2:30 The Doctors
3 PM Another World
3:30 Bright Promise
4 PM Somerset
4:30 Flintstones
5 PM Timmy And Lassie
5:30 News
6:30 NBC News
7 PM Country Place
7:30 Red Skelton
8 PM Rowan And Martin's Laugh-In
9 PM Movie: "The Girl-Getters"
11 PM News
11:45 Tonight Show
1:15 Take Five

WXIX Ch. 19 Cincinnati (Ind.)

2 PM Movie Game
2:30 Cartoons
3 PM Larry Smith Puppets
3:30 Krazy Kat
4 PM Snuffy Smith/Beetle Bailey
4:30 Augie Doggie/Rocket Robin Hood
5 PM Batman
5:30 Patty Duke
6 PM Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea
7 PM Flintstones
7:30 Music Connection
9 PM Movie: "The Best Of Everything"
11 PM Can You Top This?
11:30 Movie: "The Adventures Of Hajji Baba"

WKYT Ch. 27 Lexington (CBS)

7 AM CBS News
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Town Talk
10 AM Galloping Gourmet
10:30 Beverly Hillbillies
11 AM Family Affair
11:30 Love Of Life
12 N News
12:30 Mike Douglas
1:30 As The World Turns
2 PM Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
2:30 Guiding Light
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 Edge Of Night
4 PM Movie: "The Marriage-Go-Round"
6 PM News
6:30 CBS News
7 PM Can You Top This?
7:30 Gunsmoke
8:30 Here's Lucy
9 PM Mayberry R.F.D.
9:30 Doris Day
10 PM Carol Burnett
11 PM News
11:30 Movie: "The Bank Dick" (W.C. Fields)

WLKY Ch. 32 Louisville (ABC)

7:30 Bob Terry & His Pirates (get it? Terry And
The Pirates, the old comic strip)
8 AM Real McCoys
8:30 Hazel
9 AM Movie: "That Certain Woman"
11 AM Bewitched
11:30 That Girl
12 N News
12:30 A World Apart
1 PM All My Children
1:30 Let's Make A Deal
2 PM Newlywed Game
2:30 Dating Game
3 PM General Hospital
3:30 Galloping Gourmet
4 PM Dark Shadows
4:30 Batman
5 PM Gilligan's Island
5:30 News
6 PM Movie: "Frontier Uprising"
7:30 Young Lawyers
8:30 Silent Force
9 PM NFL Football: Packers-Chargers
12 M News (time approximate)
12:15 Movie: "Warlock" (a Western set in a town
called Warlock, not something about male
witches)

WBLG Ch. 62 (WTVQ Ch. 36) Lexington (ABC)

8 AM News (Chet Huntley--did he do some kind of
syndicated news program after he left NBC?)
8:05 News (local)
8:30 Little Rascals
9 AM Romper Room
10 AM TV Hour Of Stars
11 AM Movie Game
11:30 That Girl
12 N Bewitched
12:30 Dick Van Dyke
1 PM Dale Wright (sounds like a local show)
1:30 Let's Make A Deal
2 PM Newlywed Game
2:30 Dating Game
3 PM General Hospital
3:30 One Life To Live
4 PM Dark Shadows
4:30 Gilligan's Island
5 PM Daniel Boone
6 PM News
6:30 I Love Lucy
7 PM Hazel
7:30 Young Lawyers
8:30 Silent Force
9 PM NFL Football: Packers-Chargers
12 M News (time approximate)

E Kentucky Educational Television (WKZT/23 Elizabethtown,
WKSO/29 Somerset, WKMR/38 Morehead, WKLE/46 Lexington,
WKON/52 Owenton)

8:30 In-school programs
4:30 Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
5 PM Sesame Street
6 PM Window/Classroom
6:15 Kentucky Collage
6:20 Calling All Consumers
6:25 Law Of The Land
6:30 Folk Guitar
7 PM Bridge With Jean Cox
7:30 TV High School
8 PM Kukla, Fran And Ollie
8:30 Vanishing Wilderness
9 PM Homewood
10 PM Book Beat
10:30 Panmed
sign off 11 PM

 

[Braves2005]

Was there a reason why One Life To Live doesn't appear on WKRC-12 in Cincinatti or WLKY-32 in Louisville instead showing reruns of The Munsters and the syndicated show Galloping Gourmet?

 

[bpatrick]

Several stations, including (in my part of the country)
WRAL Raleigh/Durham and WLOS Greenville/Spartanburg/
Asheville, didn't carry OLTL either. Seems there were station
managers who were uneasy with the ethnic mix of characters;
some of these same stations (including WLKY) temporarily
dropped the show in early 1976 over an interracial-romance
storyline which wouldn't raise an eyebrow today.

Although there were few, if any, affiliate pre-emptions, some
CBS affiliate managers objected to the romance of an Asian
woman and Caucasian man on Love Is A Many Splendored
Thing, and that storyline was dropped.

I would also think that in P&G's hometown, Cincinnati,
Edge Of Night was pretty strong.

 

[Mike Stroud]

WAVE Ch. 3 Louisville (NBC)

6:30 NBC News (may have still been in the
Chancellor/Brinkley/Newman format)

WKRC Ch. 12 Cincinnati (ABC)

10 AM Dinah's Place (pre-empted on Ch. 5)

WLEX Ch. 18 Lexington (NBC)

5:30 News
6:30 NBC News

WLKY Ch. 32 Louisville (ABC)

12 N News

WBLG Ch. 62 (WTVQ Ch. 36) Lexington (ABC)

8 AM News (Chet Huntley--did he do some kind of
syndicated news program after he left NBC?)

1 PM Dale Wright (sounds like a local show)

WAVE, 6:30 p.m.: NBC Nightly News indeed did in fact employ the platoon strategy for the first year after Chet Huntley retired. However, Edwin Newman was not formally the third man in the rotation (he was a fill-in); rather, Frank McGee served that role. How it was set up was, say, one night, David Brinkley would be stationed in Washington (a la Huntley-Brinkley Report), while John Chancellor would handle the New York desk, like Huntley did. On other nights, Frank McGee would originate from 30 Rock, while Chancellor went down to D.C. to report. On still other nights, Chancellor laid out, while McGee and Brinkley sat in their respective fixed locations. That meant Chancellor (residence NYC) had to commute quite a lot to the nation's capital.

It doesn't take an expert to guess that the traveling surely wore him out over a year's time, and with ratings slipping to CBS and Uncle Walt largely because viewers did not see the same faces nightly, I am pretty sure Chancellor handled them an ultimatum: "either make me the nightly anchor and find something else for McGee and Brinkley to do, or I might consider the weekend desk at CBS, or possibly joining ABC if Harry Reasoner doesn't work out with Howard K. Smith." So NBC abandoned the rotation in August 1971, and demoted Brinkley to pre-taped three-minute commentaries that aired about twice a week, while sending McGee to The Today Show, where he alienated most of the staff and ruled the show with an iron hand (interviews with Barbara Walters have borne this out) until his death three years later.

The work for all men was even more taxing when you consider that, for that entire year, NBC did not employ separate weekend anchors. NBC had in fact just began the Sunday evening newscast the weekend after Huntley's retirement and probably was hedging bets against its failure, so the Peacock had the trio work the weekends also. This ended also when Chancellor became the primary weeknight anchor; Garrick Utley became the first of a succession of weekend hosts.

WKRC, 10 a.m.: Last year, I posted a Southern Ohio edition from 1974, where WKRC aired an entire block of NBC shows that WLWT pre-empted because of its historic Crosley/AVCO live, in-house 90-minute weekday extravaganzas Paul Dixon and 50-50 Club. My bet is that WKRC was third in the market and was looking for a piece of any action. Since the ABC feed didn't wake up until 11:30 a.m., why not?

WLEX, 5:30-7 p.m.: Lexington sure was a rather small market at the time for a station to be running a 60-minute newscast in the early evening; many of the top markets were not even doing that. It may well have been a gimmick to keep viewers away from WKYT, which I believe was that area's top-rated station back then (and may well be now).

WLKY, 12 Noon: Wonder how well a UHF newscast at that hour fared against WAVE and WHAS? It really didn't work elsewhere in the country back in the 70s, and I can't see how Louisville would have been any different.

WBLG, 8 a.m.: Huntley apparently did preside over a five-minute syndie offering, but I think it was more in the line of commentary (think Paul Harvey or Earl Nightingale). I really can't see how a syndicator would be able to, let alone have an interest to, offer a headline service against NBC or CBS. That didn't happen until 1980, when New York's WPIX launched the Independent News Network, for unaffiliated stations to keep their audiences from switching to network affils at 11 p.m.

WBLG, 1 p.m.: It was probably, as you suspected, a typical women's show of the day, with household hints and topics of interest to the homemaker (NOT "stay-at-home moms," like today--I would love to slap the #*($ out of people who say that) set. I suspect it didn't last long, as the station was only two years old at this point, and as I recall, it wasn't listed by 1974.

 

[wbhist]

I'm wondering at what point WKYH-TV (Channel 57, now WYMT) in Hazard, KY, was first listed in TV Guide's Kentucky edition (the station was about a year old at this point).

 

[Charles1]

I'm wondering at what point WKYH-TV (Channel 57, now WYMT) in Hazard, KY, was first listed in TV Guide's Kentucky edition (the station was about a year old at this point).

I lived in Louisville from '83-'86. IIRC, Channel 57 wasn't listed the entire time I lived there.

 

[radiorob2.0]

WKYH began its appearance in TV Guide around 1980.

Dale Wright was a local radio talk show host. At the time he worked for WBLG Radio (1300). Wright worked most of the 70’s and 80’s at WNVL Nicholasville (500 watt daytimer at 1250). He was ahead of his time and the market with general interest talk radio. For whatever reason, he never migrated back to the big signals when talk took over the AM band. Wright spent the 90’s working at Circuit City. He passed away a few years ago.

WKYT joined WLEX a few years later producing hour long newscast. Channel 36 (WBLG 62) stayed a half hour format until the late 80’s when ownership finally invested in news. Around this time WLEX was number one but this would change with the arrival of Ken Kurtz as WKYT’s news director. By the late 70’s WKYT was number one.

WLKY was very aggressive promoting itself against WAVE and WHAS. Channel 32 was the number three station but competitive. It was WLKY’s success that motivated the future owners of WDRB to sign on Channel 41 a year later because of the market’s UHF penetration.

 

[Mike Stroud]

I'm wondering at what point WKYH-TV (Channel 57, now WYMT) in Hazard, KY, was first listed in TV Guide's Kentucky edition (the station was about a year old at this point).

I lived in Louisville from '83-'86. IIRC, Channel 57 wasn't listed the entire time I lived there.

It wasn't listed in the Kentucky TV Guide, but rather in the West Virginia edition, as some counties in eastern Kentucky are considered part of the Huntington-Charleston market. However, as I mentioned in an earlier post about WKYH, it was listed in the Kentucky edition of the Louisville Courier-Journal in the 1970s.

 

[radiorob2.0]

WKYH didn't appear in the West Virginia edition until just before it was added in the Kentucky Edition.

Eastern Kentucky was a market nightmare because of cable television. Back in the day, a county had a dozen cable operations serving a few homes in a holler or an entire city. Northeast Kentucky cable focused on Charleston/Huntington. Pikeville, Prestonsburg, and Paintsville received Charleston/Huntington, Tri-Cities, Bluefield and WKYH.

Then there is Southeastern Kentucky, Letcher County was my vantage point. They received all of the above plus Knoxville, Asheville and if determined Lexington over one of a dozen cable systems serving the county. TV Guide was useless beyond network programming because there wasn't an edition included the possibly six TV markets that might be on your cable. Even the local newspapers couldn't keep up.

That anomaly may be the reason WKYH was never included in TV Guide. Their viewership didn't make the cut in any of those markets, but eventually included. For what it is worth, despite the small ERP WKYH was on many cable systems since it was a "local" station.

 

[bpatrick]

After I posted this I looked up something about Chet Huntley.
There was no mention of his five-minute program and I'd never
heard of it until I saw these schedules. I do stand corrected,
however; it was Frank McGee and not Edwin Newman who was
the third member of the short-lived "NBC Nightly News" triumvirate.

Re Lexington news: Lexington has always been regarded as a good
news town, despite its size, and I seem to recall hour-long newscasts
on WLEX and WKYT throughout the '70s. As for WLKY in Louisville,
their noon newscast didn't make it; by the late '70s the only ABC
daytime show that ran out of pattern was "Edge Of Night," which
was on at 10:30 AM instead of 4 PM. By that time, 32 Alive was
owned by Combined Communications (later bought by Gannett) and
was a sister station to 11 Alive in Atlanta (g.m. Jeff Davidson went
from WLKY to WXIA), and in the late '70s had a strong lineup of
syndicated shows: "Donahue," "Emergency One!," "The Six Million
Dollar Man," "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," "Joker's Wild," "Tic Tac Dough,"
and "Family Feud." It was also the home of Lawrence Welk in syndication
for most of that time. It might have stayed with ABC had WHAS not gotten an
opportunity to win back the Kentucky Derby.

I don't recall Lexington's ABC affiliate not being listed in TV Guide except
for the period in 1980 when it was moving from Ch. 62 to Ch. 36 and was
temporarily off the air. I do recall first seeing WKYH in the West Virginia edition,
when it wasn't listed in the Kentucky edition.

 

[mleach]

Re Lexington news: Lexington has always been regarded as a good
news town, despite its size, and I seem to recall hour-long newscasts
on WLEX and WKYT throughout the '70s.

I have heard the same thing about Louisville ( that being a good news market ). Cincinatti I have been told was actually a better "news town" than Columbus and Cleveland in those days mainly because of Nick Clooney however since I have never seen him do the news, I can't comment.

On the flip side what was the "worst" news town? For many it's Richmond. While one can debate that issue, its safe to say there is a lot of "drama" for some unknown reason attached to that market. DCRTV recently posted a lot of emails on his site about that market even though I have noticed that Dave Hughes did take some of those messages down but regardless it was more/less a screaming match like former employees of WXEX SCREAMING that they never did use the "Eyewitness News" brand ( what about those old WXEX TV Guide ads eh? ) and somebody at Richmond's channel 12 making the claim that WWBT was still airing its news in B/W all the way until 1977 ( yes 1977 they claim) and that for many years it was "against Virginia Law" for a local station there to do 60 minutes of non-stop local news which was why WTVR aired CBS News between the 6 and 7pm newscasts.

Of course all of this is bullsh*, not hard for anyone to figure that out but for some strange reason ( at least on DCRTV anyway ) it still doesn't stop people from thinking that such stuff was a reality.

 

[bpatrick]

WWBT (then WRVA) was doing its local programming
in color in the 1966-67 season, as was WTVR (I know
this because I was living in Norfolk then, and both
markets were in the Eastern Virginia edition of TV Guide).
And I distinctly remember Eyewitness News on Ch. 8 in
the late '70s/early '80s.

As for Cincinnati, Nick Clooney was certainly a force, but
I always thought the dean of news anchors there was
Al Schottelkotte.

 

[mleach]

As for Cincinnati, Nick Clooney was certainly a force, but
I always thought the dean of news anchors there was
Al Schottelkotte.

Did you ( or anyone else on here for that matter ) ever get a chance to see Jerry Springer when he was a news anchor for WLWT? I have seen small clips of his work on You Tube over the years but not enough to see just how good of an anchor he really was.

About ten years ago Jerry Springer had published his bio called "Ringmaster" ( I believe ) and even though he didn't come right out by saying that HE and his then-co anchor Norma Rashid were number one in Cincinatti, he sure implied just that.

Having lived in the DC & Baltimore region in the 70s & 80s, I had the chance to see both Maury Povich and Oprah Winfrey doing news before both as we would say for better or worse had "hit it big".

Maury Povich wasn't a bad anchor at all on WTTG, Oprah Winfrey on WJZ on the other hand, not as good but a lot of that had to do wasn't due to Oprah herself but rather it was the then-popular WJZ anchor team, the late Jerry Turner and Al Sanders, as both came from the "old school" of television news and neither really liked Oprah as they looked down on women doing hard news though Sanders did come around later on accpeting the fact that women can be just as good doing news as men are but Jerry Turner I don't think ever did.

 

[bpatrick]

Where Oprah really made her mark in Baltimore was on
WJZ's morning show "People Are Talking," which she co-
hosted with somebody named Richard Sher. When that
show consistently beat Phil Donahue, ABC looked to her
to host WLS's "A.M. Chicago," which evolved into the
syndicated show we see every day. Don't forget, too,
that Oprah anchored (weekends, I think) at WTVF Nashville,
before going to Baltimore.

 

[mleach]

Where Oprah really made her mark in Baltimore was on
WJZ's morning show "People Are Talking," which she co-
hosted with somebody named Richard Sher. When that
show consistently beat Phil Donahue, ABC looked to her
to host WLS's "A.M. Chicago," which evolved into the
syndicated show we see every day. Don't forget, too,
that Oprah anchored (weekends, I think) at WTVF Nashville,
before going to Baltimore.

Oprah Winfrey..one thing that needs to be said is that she doesn't forget her roots. Some years back she was in Baltimore to visit...WJZ !! Even though her show airs on WBAL and she didn't even pay THEM a visit.. And despite being 25 years later Oprah and Richard Sher are still good friends to this day. Likewise with her former WTVF/Nashville co-anchor Chris Clark.

Kinda surprised she has never offered either Clark or Sher a job within her empire but then again maybe she did but both guys were happy staying right where they are/were since I believe Clark has since retired from WTVF.

 

[radiorob2.0]

As for Cincinnati, Nick Clooney was certainly a force, but
I always thought the dean of news anchors there was
Al Schottelkotte.

Did you ( or anyone else on here for that matter ) ever get a chance to see Jerry Springer when he was a news anchor for WLWT? I have seen small clips of his work on You Tube over the years but not enough to see just how good of an anchor he really was.

About ten years ago Jerry Springer had published his bio called "Ringmaster" ( I believe ) and even though he didn't come right out by saying that HE and his then-co anchor Norma Rashid were number one in Cincinatti, he sure implied just that.

Having lived in the DC & Baltimore region in the 70s & 80s, I had the chance to see both Maury Povich and Oprah Winfrey doing news before both as we would say for better or worse had "hit it big".

Maury Povich wasn't a bad anchor at all on WTTG, Oprah Winfrey on WJZ on the other hand, not as good but a lot of that had to do wasn't due to Oprah herself but rather it was the then-popular WJZ anchor team, the late Jerry Turner and Al Sanders, as both came from the "old school" of television news and neither really liked Oprah as they looked down on women doing hard news though Sanders did come around later on accpeting the fact that women can be just as good doing news as men are but Jerry Turner I don't think ever did.

IIRC, Jerry Springer was part of a mid eighties revamp of WLWT. The combination of the new News 5 and Channel 12's line up featuring Nick Clooney and Ira Joe Fisher brought down WCPO. Springer was a straight ahead news anchor and featured the occasional commentaries.

Gary Burbank did wonderful impersonations of Clooney, Springer and Shottelkotte. Each "news anchor" would call Burbank promoting what was coming up on the news. Then they would each call again trying to one up the other with more outrageous stories.

 

[bpatrick]

Something that just occurred to me: WKYH is now
WYMT and is a CBS affiliate--a pretty good one,
considering its location and being on Ch. 57 (although
it's on digital 12). True, the only syndicated show it
shares with sister station WKYT is "Live With Regis &
Kelly," and its newscasts are what you might expect from
a station without much budget, but the station is highly
watched in southeastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia,
and even parts of southwestern Virginia and northeast Tennessee.
(You can get UK basketball on WYMT, usually a sure ratings getter,
last season excepted.) Ever since I've heard of the station I've
always felt that management (and the station was founded by the
eight-time mayor of Hazard, Bill Gorman) has been very much in
tune with the tastes of the area it serves (if somebody posted some
schedules from the '70s they'd find a lot of gospel and bluegrass shows,
while today there'd be a lot of sports and Andy Griffith reruns).

And at one point it was listed in three editions of TV Guide:
West Virginia, Kentucky, and Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson City.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Something that just occurred to me: WKYH is now
WYMT and is a CBS affiliate--a pretty good one,
considering its location and being on Ch. 57 (although
it's on digital 12). True, the only syndicated show it
shares with sister station WKYT is "Live With Regis &
Kelly," and its newscasts are what you might expect from
a station without much budget, but the station is highly
watched in southeastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia,
and even parts of southwestern Virginia and northeast Tennessee.
(You can get UK basketball on WYMT, usually a sure ratings getter,
last season excepted.) Ever since I've heard of the station I've
always felt that management (and the station was founded by the
eight-time mayor of Hazard, Bill Gorman) has been very much in
tune with the tastes of the area it serves (if somebody posted some
schedules from the '70s they'd find a lot of gospel and bluegrass shows,
while today there'd be a lot of sports and Andy Griffith reruns).

And at one point it was listed in three editions of TV Guide:
West Virginia, Kentucky, and Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson City.

Bill Gorman pursued a television station after the CBS documentary on the plight of Appalachia. He felt the news special didn't reflect the real story of life in the mountains. WKYH, as small town as it was, served as a voice to Eastern Kentucky since there wasn't a local station or even one from Kentucky serving the population. Until the eighties many cable systems in Southeastern Kentucky imported VHF signals from Huntington, Tri-cities and Knoxville and ignored Lexington (an all UHF market). So "local" news was West Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia. Even with only 214kw they had a loyal audience. Back in 1980 the station was off the air for weeks due to a faulty klystron tube and the phones rang off the hook until they returned.

Kentucky Central purchased WKYH from Mayor Gorman in 1985 and rebuilt the facility. Nothing from the old 57 was used for WYMT. Shortly after the purchase the old WKYH burned to the ground destroying everything. The last time I went through the area the old tower was still there.

By the way, a search of WKYH on you tube will bring up a few videos from the last days.