The Face of "The Voice of TV Guide" Found

[wbhist]

I speak, of course, of the announcer who handled the commercials for TV Guide (anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds) from the early 1960's to 1980-81. The website tvobscurities.com now has an ad for the 1962 Fall Preview issue where you actually see this announcer holding up a copy of that issue:
http://www.tvobscurities.com/2010/09/tv-guide-fall-preview-commercial-spots/
The only question is now, any of the experts on this board have any idea who this person is? Some have speculated it may have been longtime Philadelphia radio and TV newsman Taylor Grant (and after all, TVG, in the years it was owned by Triangle Publications, was based in Philly). But can anyone here say for sure, one way or the other?

 

[oldiesfan6479]

The neatest thing about the second (1979) clip was that every time the picture rolled,
you could see the station's VIT signal.

If that doesn't say "TV geek," I don't know what does! ;D

 

[tantric38]

I remember that freaky, shall we say "circular" music from those ads. That combined with the stern voice was a little disquieting to a kid. Then long about late 1980 the music was replaced briefly with something even freakier that sounded like some weird Tangerine Dream reject. I'll bet they play both of those "songs" on the elevator ride to hell.

 

[newsmark]

As a kid, I also thought the TV Guide music was kind of scary. At the very best it sounded newsy. The announcer's voice fit the music, but the voice and music didn't fit the copy at all!

 

[MattParker]

A bio (and picture) of Taylor Grant is available at the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia website:
http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/taylorgrantbio.html

A well-known aircheck of Taylor Grant is included in many "blooper" collections: Grant is doing a news broadcast for ABC radio and keeps calling in reports from various field correspondents - and nothing works. Not one of the reports is heard. Instead Grant has to ad lib his way around the stories that were supposed to come from the correspondents.

It is a bit a surprising that TV Guide did retain Grant for the TV Guide commercials because publisher Walter Annenberg had fired Grant from his Philly TV station for being too liberal (several other local stations fired him after controversial commentaries). He ended up doing commentaries on a classical station sponsored by the city owned gas utility, until the mayor ordered his firing.

 

[wbhist]

I didn't see anything about Grant working at WFIL radio or TV (the latter now WPVI), in his Broadcast Pioneers bio, unless I'm missing something; early in his career, he did work at WCAU radio (now WPHT). In his years as "Mr. TV Gahhhhd" (that's how the magazine name came across from his lips), he worked for WRCV-TV (ex-WPTZ, now KYW-TV), Mutual radio, WIP radio, WIBF-TV (later WTAF, now WTXF) and WFLN. He must've done TV Guide ads for at least two decades, if not more; the last in early 1981 (one of his final V/O's for them was the issue where Suzanne Somers was on the cover, talking about how Three's Company producers were out to ruin her). In his final months of doing TV Guide ads, they finally dispensed with that synth music they played since at least 1968 when the magazine's logo was updated.

But hearing that blooper audio, the only thing missing in my head was that spacey three-note loop.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I had recently run into TV Guide radio ads from the 70's when I was looking for Jean Shepherd radio shows connected to A Christmas Story. The downloads I found had the ads intact including the TV Guide ads.