I was visiting my son in Louisville the other day we sent out for some food. He went to pick it up and told me before he left to "make myself at home" and watch his big screen television until he returned. I got hold of his remote and immediately started "surfing." (Men have a tendency to do that...sort of like salting everything before you even taste it). As I breezed through the channels I couldn't help but notice he only got one CBS, one ABC, one NBC, a single FOX and a couple of independent stations.
That's It! Everything else was cable. His cable provider gave him about 100 channels but only one each of the major networks.
Here in little old Muhlenberg County Kentucky we not only get all of those cable or dish channels but we get at least two NBC, two FOX, two CBS, Two or Three ABC (depending on which system you're on) and a "bevy" of independents. Years ago, before cable had so many offerings we got two NBC's (Evansville and Nashville), two CBS (Evansville and Nashville), three ABC (Evansville, Nashville AND Bowling Green), Two FOX (Evansville and Nashville), two PBS (Kentucky & Tennessee) and lots of little old independents. Neither Evansville nor Nashville could get all of that television, much less Louisville. Shoot, I doubt Chicago gets that much (Atlanta doesn't).
When we go on vacation (usually to Destin, Florida), I noticed they get a bunch of networks, just like us....in fact they probably get a few more. They get channels from Dothan, Alabama, Panama City, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama.
Why is this important you ask? Several times, Tennessee or Vanderbilt will be playing basketball or football at the same time the University of Kentucky does. No problem...just flip the channel up to the same network, except on Evansville (or if it's on ABC, you get the third option of Bowling Green). They'll broadcast the Kentucky game everytime. Same if Indiana is playing at the same time as UK....surf on down to Nashville and they'll carry the Kentucky game. WUXP, an independent station in Nashville broadcasts all of Kentucky's regionally televised games as does WTVW in Evansville and WBKO in Bowling Green. Comes in pretty handy.
We're on DISH network with our televisions. I use the address of our cabin at Lake Malone for our primary address because we can get the Nashville local channels (I can get the Evansville stations on an antenna). I grew up watching Jud Collins and Teddy Bart and Boyce Hawkins down at Channel 4 and Chris Clark, Bob Lobertini (remember Captain Bob?) and John Lashlee at Channel 5. Channel 8 (which is now Channel 2) brought Larry Munson and some others whose names elude me at the present. Of course Channel 7 in Evansville (which was ABC then, they're FOX now) gave us personalities like "Biff" Cole on the anchor desk and Marsha Yockey (before she moved over to Channel 14) on the weather. Channel 14 has been anchored by David James (not the one from Central City) for the past 30 years. Ann Komis (another Channel 7 transplant) joins him and Mike Blake has been the sportscaster over there for at least twenty five years.
These people were bigger than life. We literally watched them grow up (and grow old) right before our eyes on our TV screens, many of them coming on board about the time color came to television. I'll never forget seeing Oprah Winfrey's debut on Channel 5. She became an anchorwoman soon after starting there. I remember her coming to Central City to speak at an alumni banquet for Kentucky State College (now University) in the seventies. We had no idea how important and powerful she would become (she was probably about twenty years old at the time). Remember the guy who believed in her and hired her? It was Chris Clark and he became a fixture down at Channel 5, retiring last year after nearly 40 years in broadcasting.
Hope Hines, Channel 5's sportcaster was an emcee of the Miss Muhlenberg pageant once and was Grand Marshall of our Christmas parade a few years later. He's still at it down there and works every night, even weekends. Some of you will remember Huell Howser from Channel 4. Huell was one of those guys who they gave a camera, a microphone and a four wheel drive to and told him to "hit the road," meaning the "back road." Huell found his way to Powderly where a family was letting a 500 lb. Hog (which he called a Pig) live in their house as a pet. He interviewed the people and the neighbors and it was what got his career off and running. Now Huell does the same thing except he works out of the Los Angeles area with a show called "California's Gold," where he travels the back roads of that state that has more than it's share of unusual characters. Channel 25 out of Evansville has a similiar personality who did the same thing for them. His name was Hal Wolford and he was a huge fan of "thumbpicking," which brought him to our county many times. He retired from television about 6 or 8 years ago but still attends the annual "Thumbpicking Championship" competition today.
Anybody remember Norm Woodell? He did the same thing at Channel 5 that Huell Howser did at Channel 4. He was known as the "Tennessee Traveler." He came to the Muhlenberg County Fair in the mid 1970's to do a piece on the nation's first 4 x 4 pull. He liked it here so much he stayed about three or four days. The summer he was here for the 4x4 pull (which had few rules), Goodyear over in Madisonville had remodeled their tire plant and was having a "grand re-opening," an event they considered important enough to bring in one of their massive Blimps. No one other than company personnel had any idea it was coming to the area and there was no publicity about it. In other words, it just "showed up." By the way, did I mention this happened to be on July 4th? The Central City Jaycees sponsored the fair in those days and Mike Plemmons (who was a local radio personality at the time) was announcing the 4 x 4 pull. Norm was filming the event. Suddenly, out of nowhere, here came the Goodyear Blimp. Apparently it liked to travel in wide circles so circling over Muhlenberg County wasn't unusual for it's crew. Plemmons simply looked up and said "Ladies and Gentlemen, if you'll look over to the west by the Central City Country Club, you'll see the Goodyear Blimp "America" from Miami, Florida....brought to you through the courtesy of the Central City Jaycees!" A spectator walked up to me and asked if we were on "Wide World of Sports?" He saw Norm with his camera and the blimp and actually thought it was an international event. Norm mentioned this on Channel 5's feature on the following night's news.
Of course, many of us remember Lloyd Lindsey Young, a weatherman at Channel 14 in Evansville for a couple of years before becoming the #1 weathercaster in New York City a few years later as well as a frequent guest on Howard Stern's radio show. Lloyd grew up in Hollywood, California and has been in the TV/Radio broadcasting business since 1962; starting at Bakersfield radio station KWAK AM 970 in 1962. He also spent 12 years at WWOR-TV, channel 9 in New York City.
His trademark intro is "Hellooooo (insert city name)". He is also known for his outrageous weather pointers which are sent in by viewers. His wild weather routine has earned him guest spots on Geraldo and The Howard Stern Show. In a March 2007 interview on Stern's Sirius Satellite radio show, Stern called Young "the most successful mentally challenged person I've ever met."
Young "annunciates" each word carefully when speaking and has a very deep and distinct voice. When I worked at Lester Motors, we decided to have a promotion one Saturday and paid Young to come over and sign autographs, etc. for a couple of hours. I told him where we were at and to pull into the main entrance to the service department when he arrived and we'd set him up a desk in the showroom. We advertised it in both local papers and even purchased some radio ads on an Owensboro radio station that was popular. We had no idea that hundreds of people would show up to meet him and get their picture made. He had a son who was about 13 years old at the time named "George Lindsey Young," and little George accompanied him on this particular trip. He arrived driving one of Channel 14's company cars and when he pulled into the garage, I put out my hand to introduce myself to him. He responded with "Helloooooo Hugh, I'm Lloyd Lindsey Young and this is my son, George!" George came around the front of the car (he was a mini-clone of his father), put out his hand and said, "Hellooooo Hugh, George Lindsey Young here!" George Lindsey Young later grew up to be a weatherman himself, even working with his Dad in New York for a number of years.
Channel 4 also brought us John Seigenthaler, Jr., now of MSNBC and son of former Nashville Tennesseean publisher, John Seigenthaler, Sr. The late Boyce Hawkins, the weatherman at Channel 4 emceed a regional talent contest at the former Central City Gym and Channel 5's Bob Lobertini emceed a similiar event at Greenville's Strawberry Festival (later Coal Festival) in the 50's, accompanied by exercise guru Jackie Bell. Lobertini also played the role of "Captain Bob," an afternoon kid's show that came on about the time you got home from school. This caused him to be not only an announcer (he dressed up similiar to Captain Kangaroo, including the nautical cap), but he was also a ventroquilist and puppeteer.
I suppose the most famous television personality in this area for twenty-plus years had to be Marcia Yockey, the weather caster who began at Channel 7 in Evansville and later moved over to Channel 14. She was "let go" at Channel 7 and instantly propelled Channel 14 to #1 in the Nielsen ratings for the next several years. The decision to "let her go" had to be akin to the changing of the formula for Coca-Cola. Yockey (who by her own admission had a "face for radio") would show up and do the weather in a bikini or always wore a "tee-shirt" promoting regional events. She never had "electronic graphics," but chose to use a simple "magic marker" and national map to explain the various weather systems. She still holds the record today for attracting the largest crowd in the history of the Central City Christmas Parade where an estimated 10,000 spectators showed up to see her.
I guess we're lucky today to have news available to us 24/7 but I still enjoy reminiscing about the old days when our old black & white TV flickered the news at 6:00 p.m. (remember there wasn't a 10 p.m. newscast back then) and one of the news anchors would take on the role of being a guest in our living room, bring us up to date before Red Skelton or Jack Benny or Bonanza came on. Lotsa fond memories there!
Oh well, gotta go..... It's time for Survivor!!!
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