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Post by Kevin on Jun 27, 2005 22:30:04 GMT -5
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Post by Max on Jun 27, 2005 23:03:19 GMT -5
Yessssssssssssssssssssss Kevin I do! I've got a couple of Fright Night links saved on my computer. I remember it was always a double feature and came on at 7pm on Saturday Nights with a 2nd feature at 9! Oh, yeahhh, we've been talking about the ole' Channel 41 days here, as well as WKLO's site. The initial 5 or 6 years of WDRB's existence are as much a staple of Louisville folklore as are WAKY and WKLO!
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Post by Mike Griffin on Jun 28, 2005 3:00:41 GMT -5
Elmer Jaspan was the GM of channel 41 and the man most responsible for what went on the air. It was truely a low budget operation. Most employees made only $100/week (though I'm sure the Fear-Monger made more). Whenever something cost money EJ would say, "Develop A New Techinique."
The Fright Night movies, as most TV programs in the early 70's played from film. The Fear Monger inserts were recorded on 2" reel-to-reel video tape. Channel 41 had two video tape machines and lots of commercials to play. Before going on the air engineers would edit the many single reel video tape commercials together so they could play back and the other machine could play the Fear Monger inserts.
The films were played from one of two projectors. At that time many commercials were also on film. There was a full time editor who spliced all the film commercials together on one reel, and who put stop tabs on the film and cut them to fit the time. Films were maximum of one-hour on a reel. So the person running master control had to be fast enough to change movie reels while the commercials were playing. And he would be switching back and forth between video tape, film, or commercials with audio over slides. By the way, he had a constant battle to keep the many slides that were used loaded. Slides contained most of the supers that were done and Channel 41 employed a full time photographer/artist to put these together along with slides for many local, small advertisers, like the Dew Drop Inn, which was just around the corner. Their commercails were just voice over slides. Early local advertisers included A Sonic Guard, Bob Ryan, Burger Queen, Mad Man Mac, Service Master, all the greats.
Don Grider did News Now inserts. Don Grider had previously worked in news at channel 32 and came in in the late afternoon and recorded the news updates for the night. This was another element that played from video tape. The two guys who ran master control were busy.
Channel 41 came on the air at 3:00 PM through the week, around 8AM on Saturday and 10:30AM or so on Sunday as I recall. Sign off was 12:30 or 1AM each night after the late movie ended.
As someone stated Wilson Hatcher was the voice of channel 41 and he was also operations manager. Once he brought in some tapes of himself at WKLO when it had been live country. Small world.
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Post by Max on Jun 28, 2005 8:27:41 GMT -5
You're right, Mike. Independent 41 would come sign on at 3 and Presto the Clown and 'Funsville' would be on until 4. Presto would have J. Fred Frog and Honey Bunny and would show magic tricks (Sands of the Desert, making a Jacob's Ladder, making a pressman's hat), would have guests such as Tom Boone from Rauch Planetarium, and show cartoons such as Snagglepuss and Pixie and Dixie and take time to read letters from the kiddies. Rocket Robin Hood came on afterwards at 4 at some point and the Three Stooges at another point. Shows in the beginning included Lost in Space, Leave it to Beaver, Patty Duke, Flipper, Speed Racer, the Addams Family and Ultra Man (one of my favorites). The (sickly) Shirley Temple Theatre would come on Sunday afternoons, too. A few years later, I believe 41 came on earlier and programming included Bob Braun's 50-50 Club and Bozo the Clown. I remember, as well, the Million Dollar Movie. I remember some of the commericials Mike mentions. Bob Ryan the Smiling Irishman and Mac Man Mac (I'd give them away but my wife won't let me!), but I also remember commercials for Riggs Motors and First Link Supermarket. Most voiceovers were done by Ray Foushee and the late Wilson Hatcher who, as I mentioned in an earlier post either here or the KLO site, delivered the Channel 41 news. But then Fox took over and programming has gone the way music and the rest of the world has gone-down the drain.
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Post by bruiser on Jun 28, 2005 16:31:07 GMT -5
Max, I think you mean Mad Man Mac from Sun TV. They'd get a bunch of old tv sets, and Mad Man would take an ax or sledge jammer to'em. He was usually wearing a Napoleon type get up. Sun TV was so successful, they set up franchise operations, but they expanded to fast, and that was their downfall. I think there still might be a couple of the franchises still in business somewhere in this country. Of course they are no longer franchises.
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Post by Max on Jun 28, 2005 16:38:35 GMT -5
Classic!! By the way, when I was stationed in Hampton Roads, they had a commercial for a car dealer who used the line about giving them away VERBATIM! And I knew where they got that, too!
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Post by bruiser on Jun 28, 2005 21:39:58 GMT -5
I just noticed I typed sledge "jammer" instead of hammer. Oh well, I'm gonna leave it rather than edit it.
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Post by Mike Griffin on Jun 29, 2005 0:26:23 GMT -5
Ray Fouche did voice over much later, Wilson Hatcher was the voice in the beginning, then John Kayce who was doing most of it in '77 on my second go around, then Ray Fouche sometime after that.
The first Million Dollar movie was "Pal Joey," starring Frank Sinatra.
And how about the station ID slide with the traditional four or five revolutionary band members and the voice over, Channel 41 ... where independance is fun with drums and fife playing.
I have been trying to remember the first programs that came on channel 41. Max has a lot of them right, Flipper and Patty Duke were definately there in the first days. I have a problem...I worked at Channel 41 at two different times. In 1971 when they signed on, then again in 1977. Of course I also sometimes watched the station. But to the point I find it a little difficult to distinguish between the programs on at the very beginning and those on when I worked there the second time.
The second time, PTL and CBN took up most of the late morning and early afternoons. Presto, Speed Racer, and some of the others followed. But in 1971 when the station first came on the air...The Fear Monger was on-on Saturday evening for sure. I am thinking that Presto came along a year or two later, he didn't start when the station signed on. Probably everyone knows that Presto's name was Bill Dopp and that his wife did the voices of and animation for J Fred Frog and Honey Bunny.
In 1971 it seems like the station came on at 3 with some lame Game Show about movies with Army Archer and Larry Blyden. Ultra-Man followed in there somewhere, Patty Duke around 5, Flipper at 6, and other stuff. David Frost's interview show was on around 8 followed by who knows what, then a movie at 10:30 or 11 and sign off at 12:30 or 1. By the time I worked there again, David Frost was gone from the evenings having been replaced by Merv Griffin. And sometime during this 77-79 period that I worked there Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and later Fernwood Tonight were on around 11PM. Oh yeah, they carried reruns of Gunsmoke at 7PM I think. Bewitched was on around 5.
Back to 1971, on Saturday, I remember 'Then Came Bronson' and 'The Fear Monger.'
Somewhere on Saturday or Sunday was a fishing show. What would a TV station be without a fishing show.
Sunday morning seems like it began with Quick Draw McGraw then some movies and other movies.
Forget Shirley Temple, almost every station has played those, there's a respectability to them because of them being so pervasive. But channel 41, somewhere along the line aired a series of Pipi Longstocking movies I don't think these were at the beginning but I'm not sure. Ok raise your hand if you think Pipi was sexy.
There was also an awful, foreign, over-dubbed Hercules series.
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Post by GilHerbigJr on Jun 29, 2005 14:46:37 GMT -5
A couple more classics that ran on channel 41 in the early 70s were reruns of "The Saint" with Rodger Moore and "The Avengers" with Patrick McNee and Diana Riggs.
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Post by Max on Jun 29, 2005 15:02:27 GMT -5
When I was a kid, I used to keep a scrap book and, as I was in it looking for something the other day, I ran across several clippings I'd clipped out from the TV Guide, mostly from new fall network TV shows and advertisements from Channel 41 programming, mostly Lost in Space and the Three Stooges. On the note of Fright Night, who hasn't held a flashlight under their face in the dark and looked at themself in the mirror? I remember liking the Saint, but I was thinking I'd watched it on network TV in it's primetime run. For some reason I didn't like the Avengers...probably because of Patrick McNee.
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Post by GilHerbigJr on Jun 29, 2005 15:44:28 GMT -5
I would watch "The Saint" on ABC in the sixties during it's first run. Lost in Space had to be one of my favorite shows. 8:00 pm on Wednesday nights...I couldn't wait to get the week over to watch it. If my mom wanted to punish me for anything, all she would have to say no Lost in Space tonight or this week and that would be it...devistation ...she knew how to make me behave...at least til it was canceled.
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Post by Mike Griffin on Jun 30, 2005 11:20:40 GMT -5
One of the sadest parts of my young life is when my father insisted that I go to Convienet Food Mart, just down the block, and get him a pack of cigartettes. This was in the middle of the origional broadcast of the Star Trek episode with Spock's dad. I tried the wait-a-minute routine but it didn't work...the TV got turned off, I had to get the cigarettes anyway, and didn't get to watch the rest. Talk about devistation...it was another 30 years before I got to see that episode.
Needless to say I don't smoke and was very pleased when the age restriction was put in place for buying cigarettes.
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Post by Max on Jun 30, 2005 12:01:33 GMT -5
Convenient Food Mart...now THERE'S a memory. There used to be one down the street from Quicksie, now it's a local named John O. Guess it was just my young age, but to me those little stores were a novelty. I remember Night Owl Food Marts, too. Don't know if those were just local (we had 2 if I remember) or regional. They gave away little plastic owl keychains that screeched. I think Convenient was where I had my first Icee! Of course then we had Quick Shops that were pretty creepy. The one on the east end of town was known for being a place to get drugs. That reputation has stuck with that location and it's impossible for anything to last in that building. Of course I guess in the last 20 years or so 7-Eleven has taken the country by storm. I also was taught the lesson if I didn't do what was asked immediately the TV got turned off, sometimes at the worst times. I feel your pain, Mike.
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Post by Mike Grffin on Jun 30, 2005 12:21:23 GMT -5
The jingle sang: "8am to midnight seven days a week, wise folks shop at Nite-Owl."
The Convienent Food Mart commerical said, "Come as you are." I always hoped to see an attractive lady who just got out of the shower and remembered something. Convienent commercials were on the radio a lot, I recall Lee Gray doing a lot of voice work for them.
Ever run into Majik Mart. They tried to break into Louisville in the 60's. As far as I know they only got a couple of stores open. One was on Poplar Level, don't remember where the other was. My father helped in the start up and that which is why I remember it. Before then he had also worked for 7-11.
7-11 dates to the 50s or before in the South. They have just expanded in the last 20. I was in Japan a few years back and there were even 7-11 stores there. Funny to see the kanji charactors on the sale signs that were posted in the windows.
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Post by Max on Jun 30, 2005 15:08:57 GMT -5
Just want to share an e-mail with Ray Foushee from a few minutes ago!
Hello, Ray, Just a quick note of thanks for, along with Wilson Hatcher, being a voice of 'growing up' [TV]. I want to say voice of my childhood, but Mike Griffin tells me (not directly-I don't know him, but through a post) you weren't at TV41 in the beginning. I knew Wilson was there, but I felt you were there at least in the mid-70's (I remember your hair). Checking on this [channel 41's] site, I see you didn't get there til '81, the year I graduated. In any case, I've brought your name up occasionally on the 790WAKY.com tribute site and on 1080WKLO's site, as well. I've said on there your voice would have fit in well on WAKY.
Your voice will forever be inside my head with your trademark "tee-veee 41" enunciation!
Thanks. That was nice.
And that WAKY tribute site is a great place, by the way. Listening to the DuPont plant blowing up all over again and hearing the documentary about Paul McCartney's untimely death brought back great memories.
Now, I have to figure out what was so unforgettable about my hair....
I appreciate the kind words.
--Ray
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Post by Travis on Jun 30, 2005 15:59:07 GMT -5
Yo, Mike! There was a Majik Mart on Manslick Road, just a bit south of Berry Boulevard, as late as 1980 because I was living in Arlington Village Apartments (just behind it) at the time. I could never forget a name like that.
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Post by fearmonger on Jun 30, 2005 21:07:48 GMT -5
Good evening Fright Night fans...
And thanks for checking out my little Fright Night web page that Kevin posted about here. That's the link to my original AOL page but there's a slightly slicker one at the amazing williamgirdler.com sit run by Patty Breen-- all about one of L'ville's other horror legends! Just hit the "Fright Night" button on the bottom of the front page...
Mike Griffin, please drop me an email sometime at thefearmonger@aol.com-- I'd love to interview an original 'DRB staffer! I've got a ton of Presto photo material on hand (including the only show ever taped) and J Fred Frog currently resides under a glass dome in my office...
Keep the classic WDRB stories and memories coming! The WAKY and WKLO sites are truly amazing-- those old horror-movie promos and "Shock" announcements are gold. Years ago, Ray Foushee told me about the "Shock" show and described the opening perfectly-- Hopefully he's heard those recordings!
Dave "fearmonger" Conover
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Post by Max on Jul 2, 2005 23:38:38 GMT -5
Dave, I was perusing your great website and it's keeping me awake (amazing NASCAR didn't postpone this race...I won't get out of here until maybe around 2AM). Anyway, you mention the Tarzan movies. Do you remember the Tarzan TV Show on 41 with Ron Ely in the title role? Peculiar he sounded as if he was the most educated Tarzan ever. Anyway, I guess he was chosen for the ladies (my grandma would FLIP over him) :-) And Manuel Padilla, Jr. played Jai (sp?). I remember seeing him a few years later in a role on Happy Days, where he played Squirt, a tough talking short guy in a gang.
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Post by Mike Griffin on Jul 3, 2005 2:03:56 GMT -5
I think Ron Ely hosted Miss America a year or two, replacing Burt Parks.
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Post by Max on Jul 3, 2005 13:48:40 GMT -5
I also remember when, as they were coming on the air and out of the test pattern, they would display that 1776 picture while playing "The Sound of Music", as performed by a symphony.
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Post by fearmonger on Jul 6, 2005 5:41:22 GMT -5
<<Dave, I was perusing your great website and it's keeping me awake (amazing NASCAR didn't postpone this race...I won't get out of here until maybe around 2AM). Anyway, you mention the Tarzan movies. Do you remember the Tarzan TV Show on 41 with Ron Ely in the title role? Peculiar he sounded as if he was the most educated Tarzan ever.>>
Oh yeah, I remember the Tarzan show! Ron Ely also hosted a syndicated game show in the late 70's called "Face the Music"-- remember that being on WHAS, I think...
The Hercules show Mike posted about was "The Sons of Hercules" and I found a set of those on DVD several years back-- just a bunch of cut-down, overdubbed Italian sword-and-sandal epics but I loved the old theme song that went with 'em.
Dave
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Post by GilHerbigJr on Jul 6, 2005 12:53:27 GMT -5
Hey Guys...I guess this is just the OCD kicking in again but Manuel Padilla Jr played "Carlos" in American Graffiti...I guess the reason I remember that so well after all the years is that a friend of mine and myself went to see that movie at least 10 times at the theater. 2 or 3 times at the old "OHIO Theater" downtown and a few at the old "BARD Theater" on Bardstown Road. That had to be one of the Greatest Movies of the early 70s. ;D
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Post by Kevin on Jul 6, 2005 13:12:16 GMT -5
Gil,
Going to see American Graffetti over and over again was something I forgot until I just read your post. (Funny how this website triggers so much of that)
My friends and I even went to see it twice in one day. That movie was awesome.
We went to see it at the Westland Mall on Dixie Highway. The Westland Mall and the Raceland Mall were cookie cutter malls that were around in the 70's. They had almost identical layouts and the same type movie theaters. I think Westport was a third movie house like the two above.
They are all long gone.
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Post by GilHerbigJr on Jul 6, 2005 14:39:28 GMT -5
oops...correction on seeing Graffiti at the "OHIO"...it was the "Penthouse" on 4th Street...The Ohio had closed in or around 69. But talking about places that are gone Kevin... There were also the Alpha Cinemas on Dixie by K-Mart near Rockford Ln and some on Brownsboro Rd. I think there was a third location on Preston in Indian Trail. Those were cool in their day.
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Post by Max on Jul 6, 2005 15:10:22 GMT -5
Of course, I would in no way know this, but I thought the Ohio was an X-rated theatre, like the Shel-Mar Follies. And honestly, the only way I knew this was looking at the movie listings as a kid, and being at that age I wouldn't have known what was going on, anyway!
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Post by Mike Griffin on Jul 6, 2005 15:21:17 GMT -5
I don't remember about the Ohio or any of the other theaters specifically. I do recall that the River City Mall destroyed downtown. Perhaps it was on the decline, I don't know, I only know there were lots of people around when I started at WAKY in the pre-River City Mall days. After the mall was built most of the remaining businesses and theaters started closing, one-after-the other in short order. After the Mall, there were strip joints up near the Brown, they even advertised on WAKY as did TheaterX in Clarksville. No one came downtown for the movies any more.
The Mall, replacing 4th Street was a stupid idea.
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Post by Max on Jul 6, 2005 15:40:13 GMT -5
I never visually saw WAKY and WKLO, since I was a kid, but my brother in-law grew up in Louisville and would mention waving at the Duke as he walked by at the River City Mall.
Quick question: does anyone know the status of the guy's book on 4th Street and the history of Louisville radio? I know the first chapter was posted here online while the book was being written. Just curious about the whereabouts and all.
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Post by bruiser on Jul 10, 2005 11:08:55 GMT -5
Bailey was the Director Of Law Enforcement on the River City Mall.
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Post by Max on Oct 30, 2005 14:48:04 GMT -5
Here's another memory from the early to mid 70's for those of us who grew up in that time frame (along with WAKY, of course)-does anybody else remember the Electric Company? I remember watching this mostly in school. It was so much more 'hip' than Sesame Street & Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, both of which I loved as a kid. By the way, does anyone remember Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno being on the Electric Company? I believe I also saw some actor on one of the later Star Trek incarnations as being on there. I think his first name is Rene'. Another show they'd roll in the TV for us to watch in school was 'Mulligan Stew'. And while we're on the subject of school, does anyone remember having to watch a movie called 'The Lottery' in school? It was some freaky movie where the 'winning' card holder got stoned to death. Ya know, I fail to remember why we were showed that. It was at least shown to me in 3 separate grades. I think it was the 4th, 5th & 6th grades. Those were the years I listened to WAKY most...no connection I'm sure.
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Post by Ben Pflederer on Oct 30, 2005 19:12:39 GMT -5
Max, since you bring up the past of which I sort of forgotten about, was watching those programs with my children in those years when I was home.
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