Pro-Wrestling's Great Television Audience (1978)

Here is a nice "TV Sports" column by Bob Gillespie from the Charleston Post & Courier in 1978 about the high ratings and impact of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and World Wide Wrestling during that era.

I laugh when I read about how popular wrestling is today. It's for sure a bigger business today, but it is no where near as popular today as it was years ago. Just witness the 52% share that wrestling got on WCBD-2 in Charleston. Les Thatcher has told us about similar shares his Mid-Atlantic wrestling show got in the mid-1970s on WLOS-13 in Asheville, NC. Jim Crockett Promotions programming was pulling amazing ratings and shares back then and had been for years. Similar stories could be found in other promotions across the country as well.

So kudos to Bob Gillespie for helping educate the unknowing general public about that in 1978. Gillespie does a great job in getting his facts straight about Crockett Promotions at the time, something most sports writers or TV-writers covering wrestling would never bother with.

Some nice information here includes:

(1) Mentions of local promoter Henry Marcus and the local venue County Hall.
(2) The main promoter Jim Crockett Promotions and their local promoter in Roanoke VA Sandy Scott
(3) TV originating form the studios of WRAL in Raleigh, NC
(4) The barter relationship between the local TV stations and JCP
(5) A mention of Sandy Scott promoting Greenville SC before Roanoke
(6) The first TV stations to carry wrestling for Jim Crockett  - WDBJ-7 in Roanoke, VA and WFBC-4 in Greenville, SC.

This article was originally posted on our Studio Wrestling website in March of 2015. Thanks to Carroll Hall for forwarding this article to me, and to Peggy Lathan for transcribing it for us. Here is the text of the article (emphasis within the text is mine.) Enjoy!

Wresting Audience Greatly Expanded by TV

By Bob Gillespie

Charleston, SC - September 23, 1978

For several months now, I’ve followed this TV sports column and I have yet to see anything written on what has to be one of the tube’s most successful enterprises in the realm of sports. I shall now try to correct this omission.

What am I talking about?  Football? Basketball? Women’s Field Hockey? Tournament-level Tiddlywinks?  “No” to all of the above.

Try professional wrestling.

Wrestling? you ask, looking down your cultured nose with disdain. That Roman gladiator spectacle of the masses, with costumed clowns flying through the air like so many comic book characters?  TV wrestling – a success story?  Surely I jest, you say. And you probably laugh.

GO AHEAD. LAUGH. That’s just what both the pro wrestling promoters and local television stations are doing, all the way to the proverbial bank.

The fact is, wrestling, especially on television, has been growing in popularity over the last few years – by leaps and bounds greater than any you’ll see in the ring.  And no one realizes – and appreciates – that fact more than Charleston area television management.

On any given Saturday, year round, the Charleston viewer can see wrestling twice in one day. That’s if he doesn’t have cable TV; if he does, add another show on Saturday and one on Sunday. And if you live far enough toward Savannah where you can pick up that city’s television, you can catch two more showings, or five programs per Saturday.

There’s a reason that pro wrestling is on so often:  it’s popular.

“The shows are rather popular in this area, I know that,” says WCIV-TV (Channel 4) program director Don Moody. “If we have to move the show (1 pm Saturdays) for a network thing, we really get the phone calls.”

PROGRAM DIRECTOR Jim Shumaker of WCBD-TV (Channel 2), whose station carries wrestling Saturday night at 11:45, is even more emphatic. “It’s just unbelievable,” he said. “It leads its time periods against all comers. People in this area are really hung up on this wrestling.”

How hung up?  “In the last important ratings book, which was back in May, wrestling at midnight Saturday was pulling a 52 percent share of the audience,” Shumaker said.  By comparison, Saturday Night Live on NBC (Channel 4) gets 32 percent, while Channel 5 (WCSC-TV) carrying Blockbuster Theatre takes a 21 percent share.

Channel 2 isn’t the only beneficiary of wrestling either. When Channel 4 runs wrestling at 1 pm, it gathers in 46 percent share of the audience at that time, as opposed to 31 percent for Soul Train (Channel 5) and 19 percent for American Bandstand (Channel 2). “They’re obviously doing something right,” added Shumaker.

“They” in this case is an outfit called Jim Crockett Promotions out of Charlotte, NC who provide their Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in the Carolinas-Virginia area. Crockett not only handles the live events at local arenas, such as Charleston’s County Hall operations on Friday night, but also produces the television shows, filming the weekly at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC.

THE MOST IRONIC THING about the whole operation is the deal between Mid-Atlantic Wrestling and the local television stations. The stations get a program with a high rating – virtually for free.

“Crockett supplies us with the taped program,” Shumaker said.  “We give them two one-minute- forty-second commercials for promotion of their local wrestling matches. We get the program, which leads its time slot, plus 10 minutes of commercial time to sell. And they’re easy to sell, too.”

Why give away a program, when stations that run movies or even network programs against wrestling – and still lose out – are paying big bucks for those time-fillers?  Henry Marcus, who promotes wrestling for the Crockett operation in this area from his Columbia base, has an answer.

“It’s simple,” said Marcus, who started wrestling promotion in 1934. “Television is great, whether you’re selling wrestling or toothpaste. It’s the greatest advertising device man has ever invented. When you have 75 million people watch the Ali-Spinks fight, you can’t beat it.”

The Crockett TV blitz started “about 18 years ago under Jim Crockett, Sr., the father of the Jim Crockett who runs the operation now,” said Canadian native Sandy Scott, himself a former popular wrestler who now promotes the Mid-Atlantic product in Roanoke, VA, after covering the Greenville area the last three years. “The first station was Channel 7 in Roanoke in 1950 or so, and the second was WFBC in Greenville.”

SCOTT, LIKE MOST people involved in TV wrestling, is at something of a loss to explain its popularity. “I don’t know for sure, but it’s tremendous. Of course, we feel we offer the top wrestling talent, and the best will always hold the audience.”

“Wrestling did well without television, but TV has expanded the number of people we reach,” he added.  “Folks in smaller towns see it now.”

The only thing that may be holding pro wrestling back now is the item referred to at the beginning of this piece: its image. Sportswriters and some sports fans deride pro wrestling, question its status as a legitimate sport.  That’s actually putting it mildly: wrestling is often called a fake, a circus, a joke and the like.

I’m not getting into the merits of such arguments.  I like my skin in one piece, thank you. As one local television sportscaster put it, “I used to call wrestling a phony, but I learned you don’t do that in a crowded bar.”  But the arguments against wrestling still exist.

If the arguments don’t seem likely to change, though, the image may be doing so. “The wrestling programs on TV draw all spectrums,” Channel 2’s Shumaker noted. “We sell it locally, but our national salesmen say the general feeling among the big sponsors is that wrestling appeals to the ‘blue collar and beer’ crowd.”

“That’s not necessarily so. It seems to be drawing more young people, but it gets men, women and children, all ages. They seem to be expanding the market.”

For sure.  Said Marcus, “Our TV survey man in Charlotte estimates that on any Saturday, some 1.1 million people are watching wrestling on stations in the Carolinas and Virginia.”  “Blue collars and beer” or not, that’s a heap of potential customers for the TV sponsors.

So whether you love wrestling, hate wrestling or just don’t care, you’ll keep on seeing it on the tube for a long time. “We tend to take it for granted that it’s going to capture its time slot,” Shumaker said.  “I guess you’d have to call it a success story.”

And television is not inclined to give up success stories.

Edited from an original post in March of 2015 on our sister website "Studio Wrestling".

Studio Wrestling Focus: WDBJ-7 Roanoke VA

Over at our sister website "Studio Wrestling" there are a number of posts revolving around the "Star City" of Roanoke, VA, and the "All Star Wrestling" show that once originated from there on WDBJ-7.

Here is a list of links from those recent posts:

• "Wrestling from Roanoke" at the County Fair
• Direct From the Studios of WDBJ-TV: Wrestling Ad in Roanoke
• The Roanoke Wrestling Graphic

For all of the posts dealing with studio wrestling at WDBJ-7 in Roanoke, VA, including promoter Pete Apostolou, announcer Hall Grant, and the Roanoke Sports Club CLICK HERE.

For the Mid-Atlantic Gateway's page on the history of Studio Wrestling visit this link: WDBJ-7 Roanoke VA

Lastly, for a look at all of the studio locations where wrestling was taped for Jim Crockett Promotions from 1956-1981, visit the "Guide to Studio Wrestling" page on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway (currently on the Gateway Archive site.)

Edited from a post originally published in November 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

"Greenville is My Town" - 1978 Article in The Tiger mentions WFBC's Billy Powell

Ring announcer Billy Powell (R) with
Greenville promoter Paul Winkhaus

FROM THE STUDIO WRESTLING WEBSITE
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Back in November of 1978, the student newspaper at Clemson University called "The Tiger" ran an article on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling in the area. The two page spread included discussion of the current popularity of pro wrestling (including an interview with Ric Flair), the skeptics (including the Clemson collegiate wrestling coach), and the fans. 

A large photo was included of Ric Flair battling Blackjack Mulligan at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium, less than an hour away from the Clemson campus in Greenville SC. With some examination of the Monday cards that took place in the weeks prior to this article's publication, I've determined that the photo is from their Texas Death Match in Greenville, the main event of the October 23, 1978 card at the Auditorium.

Of particular interest to me, though, was a brief discussion of Greenville ring announcer Billy Powell, an institution in Greenville, and whose involvement in Greenville wrestling went all the way back to 1960 and the early television tapings of pro wrestling that took place at the WFBC TV studios in Greenville.

Here is a transcript of the portion of the article that dealt with Billy Powell:

A big part of Monday night wrestling is played by the ring announcer. In Greenville, the announcer is Billy Powell, a well known personality who has gained most of his popularity through the Monday night matches.

"You bet your hat I'm a wrestling fan," Powell said. He has been announcing the matches in Greenville since 1960. "We originally did the TV wrestling here, but the program was moved to Raleigh a few years back," the outgoing Powell stated. 

Wrestling in Greenville used to be held in Textile Hall, and that is where Crockett Promotions sanctioned some of their first matches. Crockett operates from its Charlotte base under the sponsorship of the National Wrestling Association (sic). "If the matches are not sanctioned, the NWA will have nothing to do with you," Powell stated.

Concerning the wrestlers as people, Powell said, "They're all nice guys. Did you see Gene Anderson in the ring tonight as he fixed my mic cord? In the ring he is a bad dude, but outside he is just a teddy bear," Powell finished.

Asked if he would ever leave the area, Powell said, "No, because Greenville is my town."

 

Greenville fans who only watched on TV and never attended a Monday night Memorial Auditorium wrestling event were still intimately familiar with Billy Powell. Twice each Saturday during the one-hour broadcast of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling on local NBC affiliate WFBC-TV channel 4 (later WYFF), Powell did exclusive 1-minute narrated promos for the card upcoming that Monday. They featured only his voice and a still artistic depiction of two wrestlers in battle. They always began the same way - - "Hello everybody, this is Billy Powell, inviting you to joins this Monday Night at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium..." These promotional segments aired twice during each show in addition to the local promotional interviews with the wrestlers taped at WRAL in Raleigh. In that way, Billy Powell's voice was as much a part of the Greenville experience of watching wrestling every week as host Bob Caudle or any of the wrestlers. 

Not only would Powell run down the matches for upcoming card, he would also briefly touch on what happened the previous Monday night, too, tying everything together. He was the man Greenville wrestling fans trusted and was a warm and familiar voice each and every week.  

For more on Billy Powell, visit the Billy Powell page on the archived Mid-Atlantic Gateway site, and check all of his related posts on this blog. You can also learn about the history of TV wrestling in Greenville on the WFBC-4 page of our guide to the studio locations for wrestling in the Mid-Atlantic area.

And you can also read the full article on wrestling in Greenville from the Nov. 3, 1978 edition of "The Tiger", which includes an interview with a young Ric Flair, archived here. It's on pages 12 and 13 of the paper, within the downloadable pdf.

 

Audio: Holiday Greetings from Billy Powell
during the beginning of one of his local promos. 

Originally published on the Studio Wrestling website in April 2001.

Jackie Crockett Steps in Front of the Camera

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Fans who attended TV tapings in the arenas for Jim Crockett Promotions and WCW in the 1980s and 1990s became familiar with Jackie Crockett as one of the important men behind the camera.

Not many people realize that for a short period of time in 1985, Jackie stepped in front of the camera, too, hosting selected local promos that were inserted into the syndicated programs such as "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "World Wide Wrestling." These segments were taped at the makeshift studio in a garage in the rear of the Crockett offices on Briarbend Drive. 

The above image is from a local promotional segment for the Columbus GA TV market. Jim Crockett's affiliate for the "World Wide Wrestling" show at that time was WRBL-3 in Columbus, with Fred Ward acting as the local promoter on the ground, just as he had been for decades for the Georgia Championship Wrestling office in Atlanta.

As we build our roster of on-air talent for Jim Crockett Promotions from the 1950s-1980s, we are happy to finally locate this image and add Jackie Crockett to that list. The complete list of on-air talent for all of the various shows and studio locations during the Crockett years can be found on the right-hand side of this website. Click on any name to bring up posts related to that person.

This post was originally published on our sister website Studio Wrestling in November of 2016.

* * * * *

Jackie played many important roles in the family business, which also included photographer. He took photos at shows primarily in Charlotte over many years, from the mid-1970s through around 1983. Some of those wonderful photos are found in a new book of his photos sold by the Crockett Foundation, the family's charitable organization run by Frances Crockett's daughter Debbie Ringley Mrozinski. (Click the graphic link below for more information.)

Got To Have Lovin': New Theme Music and Set Debut for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling (1979)

There were lots of great music themes over the years for Jim Crockett Promotions TV shows, but likely the most remembered is the 1979-1986 theme for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. 

The music was an edit from a 1978 European disco hit titled "Got to Have Loving" by French writer/arranger Don Ray (real name Raymond Donnez.) It was the only single from Ray's solo album "The Garden of Love." 

The new theme debuted on the February 10, 1979 episode of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (taped February 7 at WRAL studios in Raleigh.) It played across the same familiar "four square" opening that had debuted back in 1977. 

Here is the opening as it played out each week in your living room:

The complete Don Ray track can be found on YouTube (along with the complete album, too.)

That February show also debuted the familiar set that would be used on the Mid-Atlantic tapings through the remaining years at WRAL and then moved and used in modified formation at the smaller WPCQ studio in Charlotte. It was discarded all together when production moved out to the arenas in July 1983.

The set included a new standing-desk for hosts Bob Caudle and David Crockett, with a gorgeous textured background that included the new moniker "Mid-Atlantic Championship Sports" in raised block letters and a map that included two more states (West Virginia, Georgia) than the previous map and logo used on the 1974-1979 set.

Another big change going forward that began with this show was that introductions for matches would no longer be conducted from inside the ring, but instead by Bob Caudle as he would turn in front of a blue-screen NWA logo. That blue screen allowed a chroma key effect to be used, showing the wrestlers in the ring during their introduction. This set up would be used for the duration of the studio shows, and I've always thought it was a big mistake to make that change. The fans in the studio audience never reacted to Caudle's introductions like they had done over the years for Joe Murnick (or the Murnick boys) because Bob couldn't be easily heard by the fans. Most of the time it made for very flat reactions to the introductions.

Sadly, Don Ray's classic disco theme was removed from the episodes of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling that air on the WWE Network and replaced with a more generic sounding production cut.

But the winds of change were blowing with new music, a new set, and a new method for ring introductions, making the taping on February 7, 1979 one for the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling television history books.

Related links:
Wide World Wrestling Theme Music (1975-1978)
World Wide Wrestling Theme Music (1986-1988)
Three Seconds: Mystery Wrestlers on the Mid-Atlantic Open (1977-1883)

Originally published 3/1/21 on the Studio Wrestling website. Research by Dick Bourne. Some information taken from David Chappell's Mid-Atlantic Gateway Almanac.

Seeking More Information on Jay "Dude" Walker

WWE Network Screen Grab

Updated Saturday 1/16/21

We're looking for more information on this fellow appearing with Bob Caudle and Gordon Solie on the Starrcade '83 closed-circuit extravaganza from Thanksgiving night 1983.

His working name on FM radio was apparently Dude Walker. He was a drive-time DJ for G-105 FM (WDCG), a top-40 radio powerhouse out of the Raleigh-Durham area in 1983. (Edit: WDCG originally stood for "Durham's Country Giant.")

Between early matches during the Starrcade '83 closed-circuit telecast, Bob introduced Dude to the audience and asked him what he thought about Ric Flair. Dude said he believed Flair would take the title from Harley Race that night since Flair was in his home area, and indicated that everyone at G-105 was behind the Nature Boy.

But of more interest to us is the fact that Dude also briefly hosted some of the local promo interviews for Jim Crockett Promotions in the fall of 1983 and in 1984 that were taped at the makeshift garage studio on Briarbend Drive in Charlotte, although Tony Schiavone was still doing them at the time, too. But that  stint makes him part of the historical roster of announcers in the Crockett studio era. (Edit: In some 1984 promo segments, wrestlers referred to him as Jay. So possibly his name was Jay Walker.)

We googled Dude Walker and came across several radio personalities with that name, which apparently must have been a thing in radio. Who knew? But none of them were our guy.

Edit: Of note to point out, Gateway visitor Travis Tarrant recalls that in late 1982 and early 1983, G-105 would interview a few wrestlers after the matches had finished at the Raleigh Civic Center. It may have been Dude Walker conducting those interviews.

If you have any information on Jay/Dude Walker, we'd love to know more about him. You can contact us via the Contact Page on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Some interesting tidbits about G-105 FM and why there may have been a tie-in with Jim Crockett Promotions during Starrcade '83: 

They have had several formats over the decades including country and rock, but became a top-40 station in 1981 1978 and became a 100,000 watt powerhouse in 1982 when they began transmitting on the WRDU-TV tower in Chatham County. 

They were one of the first stations in their market to operate a dual-city license with their primary market being Raleigh-Durham, but also with a special signal going into the Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem market. During this era of the first Starrcade, they were one of the most powerful and popular radio stations in central NC and the Piedmont. 

This may have been why they partnered with JCP to promote the first Starrcade, given their reach and popularity across the immediate area around Greensboro.

They are still around, a top-40 iHeart radio station based out of Raleigh and licensed out of Durham, NC.

If you have any information on Jay/Dude Walker, we'd love to know more about him. You can contact us via the Contact Page on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Thanks to those who have provided additional information, including Joe DiGiacomo and Travis Tarrant.

This article is edited from an original post on the Studio Wrestling site (part of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway family of websites) on January 11, 2021.

Studio Wrestling: 1976 Weather Promo Has 5 Wrestling Connections

By Dick Bourne

Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Originally published on Studio Wrestling

WRAL produced a series of satirical promotional spots in early 1976 to announce Bob DeBardelaben as the primary weather host on WRAL newscasts, replacing Bob Caudle who was moving into other responsibilities at WRAL working for Jesse Helms (and continuing his hosting duties of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, of course.)

Brian Rogers recently discovered a compilation of those promotional clips on You Tube. I pulled them off YouTube and edited them down to one single storyline clip and re-posted them.

The immediate interest was of course that Bob Caudle was featured, and there was also a cameo by Blackjack Mulligan in the wrestling ring at WRAL. It was cool that the video featured these two direct wrestling connections, and also a third, since it was the voice of Bob Debardelaben you heard at each of the two breaks for the local wrestling promotional spots during "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "Wide World Wrestling":

"Let's take time for this commercial message about the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling events coming up in your area."

A day or so after posting the video clip, Carroll Hall (who publishes the excellent "All Star Championship Wrestling" blog) pointed out to me that there was a fourth wrestling connection in the video I had failed to notice: sportscaster Nick Pond. Pond was host of the Raleigh-only wrestling broadcast "Championship Wrestling" on WRAL throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. 

After writing up that information and watching the video yet again, I suddenly noticed what I thought was the familiar face of Raleigh area promoter Joe Murnick in one short scene where the president of the station is seen at his desk. Mr. Murnick is seen sitting on the couch behind him. I asked Elliot Murnick and he confirmed it was indeed his father. (Elliot also confirmed that the "president" in the video is indeed longtime President and CEO of Capitol broadcasting Jim Goodmon.)

That makes a total of five people in this short video that had direct connections to Mid-Atlantic Wrestling at WRAL-TV:

Bob Caudle

Bob hosted Jim Crockett Promotions' syndicated All Star Wrestling in the 1960s that later became Mid-Atlantic Wrestling in the 1970s and 1980s. He did weather, sports, and news at various times throughout his WRAL career, and worked for Jesse Helms at the station as well. He is seen here receiving the keys to the "executive washroom" after being promoted at WRAL.

Bob DeBardelaben
"The Biggest Name in Weather", DeBardelaben succeeded Bob Caudle as the primary weather host (known then as 'weathermen') in 1976. The promotional spots featured here served to announce and promote that. DeBardelaben is the main star of the vignettes.

Nick Pond
Nick Pond hosted the Raleigh-only broadcast of Championship Wrestling (taped simultaneously alongside Caudle's All Star Wrestling) throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. He was the main sports anchor for WRAL at the time of these promotional spots, and is seen in the video joining others in welcoming DeBardelaben to the team.

Joe Murnick
Murnick was the local promoter for Jim Crockett Promotions in Raleigh (as well as other towns in eastern NC and Virginia.) He ran his own events promotion company as well, staging concerts and other events in addition to wrestling almost every Tuesday night at the Dorton Arena or the Raleigh Civic Center. He is seen here in one scene (at the :59 second mark) sitting on a couch behind the president of the station, Jim Goodmon.

Blackjack Mulligan
One of the main event wrestlers for Jim Crockett and Joe Murnick during this time period, Mulligan was chasing the United States Heavyweight wrestling championship held by Paul Jones. (He would win the title for the first time on March 13 in Greensboro.) He has a cameo role here answering the question "Will Bob (DeBardelaben) quit?" Mully leans through the ropes of the wrestling ring in the TV studio and says "He better not!"

Originally published in February of 2013 on Studio Wrestling,
part of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway family of websites.

Thanks to Brian Rogers, Carroll Hall, and Elliot Murnick.

Link to original unedited WRAL promos: WRAL-TV: "As The Weather Turns" Promos (1976)

Joe Murnick: Raleigh Promoter and WRAL Ring Announcer

JOE MURNICK
(Capitol Broadcasting Company Staff Photo)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Joe Murnick was a well known promoter, businessman, and entrepreneur in central and eastern North Carolina and Virginia. Based out of Raleigh, North Carolina, Murnick promoted professional wrestling under the umbrella of Jim Crockett Promotions. His main towns were Raleigh, Fayetteville, and Wilmington in North Carolina, and  Norfolk, Hampton, and Richmond in Virginia, with dozens of smaller semi-regular and spot-show towns in between.

His home base was Raleigh, and he was also the executive producer of the wrestling programs taped at WRAL TV studios. In the 1960s and early 1970s, these programs were "Championship Wrestling" and "All-Star-Wrestling", taped simultaneously with Bob Caudle calling the action for "All-Star Wrestling" seen on stations around the territory, and Nick Pond on the call for the Raleigh-only "Championship Wrestling." Joe was frequently the co-host with Nick Pond for the Raleigh-only broadcast, and was marvelous at hyping up what happened at the last show, and what fans could look for at the next show. (For more see our page on Wrestling at WRAL-5.)

Murnick, along with his two sons Carl and Elliot, also promoted concerts and other entertainment events in the area under the banner of C&M Promotions, which stood for Crockett & Murnick Promotions. They brought a variety of acts to the area in the 1950s through early 1970s including the Rolling Stones, Andy Williams, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, and many others. But their main business was always professional wrestling, featuring the weekly cards every Tuesday night at Raleigh's famed Dorton Arena on the State Fairgrounds, which continued right up until Crockett Promotions sold to Ted Turner in 1988.

Murnick served his country in the Navy in World War II. He was a graduate of the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) where he was the captain of the boxing team and played football as well. He was briefly a sales rep for WRAL. He died in June of 1985.

As far as fans were concerned, though, Murnick was most famous for also being the ring announcer on the WRAL shows in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s. His famous, classic, southern drawl for "one fawwwl, a 10-minute time limit" is remembered fondly by fans of that era. You can hear one of those classic ring introductions here.

My earliest memories of watching wrestling on television include those wonderful ring introductions that Joe did for several years. David Crockett also did some ring announcing at WRAL, and even Jim Crockett a time or two. Joe would eventually turn those duties over to his two sons, Carl and Elliot, but no one came close to the classic old-school delivery of the great Joe Murnick.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Other Joe Murnick posts over at our sister-website Studio Wrestling:
Joe Murnick introduces Johnny Valentine and Bob Bruggers (1974)
Joe Murnick introduces Wahoo McDaniel and Jim Lancaster (1975)
Joe Murnick introduces Blackjack Mulligan and Big Bill Dromo (1976)

Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Luminaries Attend UNC/NCSU Wrestling Meet (1979) 
Wrestling in Raleigh with Joe Murnick (1975)
Sign the Waiver (1975)
1976 WRAL Weather Prom Has Five Wrestling Connections
Video: Paul Boesch, Andre the Giant, Bob Caudle, David Crockett, Joe Murnick

Audio clips from the collection of David Chappell, who not only was smart enough to make audio recordings back in the day, but had the wisdom and foresight to hang on to them.

Studio Wrestling: 1976 Weather Promo has Five Wrestling Connections

 
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Originally Published on the Studio Wrestling site

WRAL produced a series of satirical promotional spots in early 1976 to announce Bob DeBardelaben as the primary weather host on WRAL newscasts, replacing Bob Caudle who was moving into other responsibilities at WRAL working for Jesse Helms (and continuing his hosting duties of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, of course.)

Brian Rogers recently discovered a compilation of those promotional clips on You Tube. I pulled them off YouTube and edited them down to one single storyline clip and re-posted them.

The immediate interest was of course that Bob Caudle was featured, and there was also a cameo by Blackjack Mulligan in the wrestling ring at WRAL. It was cool that the video featured these two direct wrestling connections, and also a third, since it was the voice of Bob Debardelaben you heard at each of the two breaks for the local wrestling promotional spots during "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "Wide World Wrestling":

"Let's take time for this commercial message about the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling events coming up in your area."

A day or so after posting the video clip, Carroll Hall (who publishes the excellent "All Star Championship Wrestling" blog) pointed out to me that there was a fourth wrestling connection in the video I had failed to notice: sportscaster Nick Pond. Pond was host of the Raleigh-only wrestling broadcast "Championship Wrestling" on WRAL throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. 

After writing up that information and watching the video yet again, I suddenly noticed what I thought was the familiar face of Raleigh area promoter Joe Murnick in one short scene where the president of the station is seen at his desk. Mr. Murnick is seen sitting on the couch behind him. I asked Elliot Murnick and he confirmed it was indeed his father. (Elliot also confirmed that the "president" in the video is indeed longtime President and CEO of Capitol broadcasting Jim Goodmon.)

That makes a total of five people in this short video that had direct connections to Mid-Atlantic Wrestling at WRAL-TV:

Bob Caudle

Bob hosted the syndicated "All Star Wrestling" in the 1960s that later became "Mid-Atlantic Wrestling" in the 1970s and 1980s. He did weather, sports, and news at various times throughout his WRAL career, and worked for Jesse Helms as well. He is seen here receiving the keys to the "executive washroom" after being promoted at WRAL.

Bob DeBardelaben
"The Biggest Name in Weather", DeBardelaben succeeded Bob Caudle as the primary weather host (known then as 'weathermen') in 1976. The promotional spots featured here served to announce and promote that. DeBardelaben is the main star of the vignettes. It was "DeBardelaben's voice that introduced the local promo segments each week on the wrestling shows taped at WRAL. ("Let's take time for this commercial message about the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling events coming up in your area.")

Nick Pond
Nick Pond hosted the Raleigh-only broadcast of "Championship Wrestling" (taped simultaneously alongside Caudle's "All Star Wrestling") throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. He was the main sports anchor for WRAL at the time of these promotional spots, and is seen in the video joining others in welcoming DeBardelaben to the team.

Joe Murnick
Murnick was the local promoter for Jim Crockett Promotions in Raleigh (as well as other towns in eastern NC and Virginia.) He ran his own events promotion company as well, staging concerts and other events in addition to wrestling almost every Tuesday night at the Dorton Arena or the Raleigh Civic Center. He is seen here in one scene (at the :59 second mark) sitting on a couch behind the president of the station, Jim Goodmon. His son Elliot Murnick confirmed for us that was indeed his dad!

Blackjack Mulligan
One of the main event wrestlers for Jim Crockett and Raleigh promoter Joe Murnick during this time period, Mulligan was chasing the United States wrestling championship held by Paul Jones at that time. (He would win the title for the first time on March 13 in Greensboro.) He has a cameo role here answering the question "Will Bob (DeBardelaben) quit?" Mully leans through the ropes of the wrestling ring in the TV studio and says "He better not!"

Learn more about Studio Wrestling at WRAL-5 in Raleigh on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
Visit the Studio Wrestling website, one of the sister sites to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Thanks to Brian Rogers, Carroll Hall, and Elliot Murnick.

Link to original unedited WRAL promos: WRAL-TV: "As The Weather Turns" Promos (1976)

Link to original article on the Studio Wrestling Website

Truckin' Tom Miller

Tom Miller introduces Barry Windham and NWA World Champion Ric Flair
before their title match in Fayetteville, NC in January of 1987

For lots more about "Truckin' Tom Miller and his various roles in Jim Crockett Promotions, check out all of our related posts on the Studio Wrestling website.

Also see our post on the 1975 "Wide World Wrestling" theme music on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

(Originally published on the Studio Wrestling website March 23, 2017.)

Post Highlights: Wrestling in Roanoke, VA

Over at our sister website "Studio Wrestling" we've had a streak of posts recently revolving around the "Star City" Roanoke, VA, and the wrestling show that once originated from there on WDBJ-7.

Here is a list of links from those recent posts:

• "Wrestling from Roanoke" at the County Fair
• Direct From the Studios of WDBJ-TV: Wrestling Ad in Roanoke
• The Roanoke Wrestling Graphic

For all of the posts dealing with studio wrestling at WDBJ-7 in Roanoke, VA, including promoter Pete Apostolou, announcer Hall Grant, and the Roanoke Sports Club CLICK HERE.

For the Mid-Atlantic Gateway's page on the history of Studio Wrestling visit this link: WDBJ-7 Roanoke VA

Lastly, for a look at all of the studio locations where wrestling was taped for Jim Crockett Promotions from 1956-1981, visit the "Guide to Studio Wrestling" page on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway (currently on the Gateway Archive site.)

Bob Caudle and Nick Pond in WRAL News Team Ad from 1975

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

This is a very cool ad from an October 1975 issue of TV Guide magazine featuring the "TV5 Action News Team" from WRAL-5 television in Raleigh, NC.

The TV5 news team at that time consisted of Bob Caudle, Jon Mangum, Charlie Gaddy, and Nick Pond. 

"The TV5 Action News Team: 

Depend on it Morning, Noon, and Night."

It's a nice to see both Caudle and Pond, longtime wrestling hosts, in the same photo.  Both Caudle and Pond were wrestling announcers for wrestling tapings held at the WRAL studios. Pond was the Raleigh-area host of "Championship Wrestling" from approximately 1962-1972. Caudle hosted the syndicated show "All Star Wrestling" during most of that same time, and then transitioned to the host of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" which was seen in Raleigh on WRAL and syndicated to TV stations throughout the Carolinas and Virginia well into the 1980s

Tapings for Jim Crockett Promotions wrestling began at WRAL in 1959. In 1981, they moved to a studio in Charlotte. NC. Caudle continued to host the show there, and then later out in the arenas for both Jim Crockett Promotions and Turner Broadcasting until the early 1990s.

Thanks to Carroll Hall at the All Star Championship Wrestling website for providing us this great piece of memorabilia.

Originally published on our sister website, Studio Wrestling, on 8/5/18.  

Don't miss the next installment of "WRAL Wednesdays" which will spotlight the team of Johnny "The Champ" Valentine and "Nature Boy" Ric Flair.

Studio Wrestling Website Updates

Studio Wrestling Update
Be sure not to miss our posts on the Studio Wrestling website. Here are links to some recent posts:

Studio Wrestling at WNOK-19 in Columbia SC
 Rarely discussed site for TV tapings in 1962

Studio Wrestling in Nashville
A look at WNGE in Nashville in 1977

Apostolou Acquires Starland Arena
The famous Roanoke promoter finds a home fo his cards in 1965

"All Star Wrestling" Memories at WDBJ
A blogger offers memories of WDBJ Roanoke wrestling

All-Star Wrestling with Bill Kersten
A peek inside the TV studio for Kansas City wrestling

Rich Landrum and Ric Flair
A video clip of the "World Wide Wrestling" host with the Nature Boy!

Jim Crockett's Earliest Foray into Televised Wrestling (1956)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

All-Star Championship Wrestling

Carroll Hall, who publishes the "All-Star Championship Wrestling" website, has unearthed information on what most surely was Jim Crockett's earliest foray into televised wrestling.

In May of 1956, WFBC Channel 4 in Greenville, SC announced they would begin airing live wrestling matches in the studios of WFBC beginning on June 2, 1956. The show was called, appropriately enough, "Carolina Wrestling."

Here is the text of the announcement that appeared in the Greenville Times.

Channel 4 Will Have Wrestling Ring in Studio

Wrestling in the studios of WFBC-TV on Rutherford Street will be presented "live" by Channel 4 each Saturday afternoon from 4:30 to 5:30, the television station announced yesterday.

A 20 x 20 regulation ring will be set up in the spacious studios and name wrestlers will appear regularly. First performance will be next Saturday afternoon.

The wrestlers who have been scheduled to appear at various times include Mr. Moto, Kinji Shiduya, Gene Becker, Jack Whitzig, Don Arnold, Don Eagle, and Cheif War Eagle, Lea, Chick and Leo Garabaldi, Carl Von Hess, Dick Steinborn, and Angelo Martinelli. There will also be girl and midget wrestlers.

Commentator for the events will be Claude Freeman.

According to Hall's research of newspaper archival TV listings from that time period, the show ran for just over three months, with it's last appearance on the TV schedule being Saturday, September 8, 1956. Demand for the free tickets to the studio show grew so quickly that on at least one occasion, WFBC moved the show to the famous Textile Hall in Greenville, site of many Jim Crockett wrestling events in the 1950s and 1960s. The move was reported in the Greenville Times to accommodate the huge demand for tickets to the live broadcasts.

WFBC-FM radio personality Claude Freeman was the host for the program. Freeman had been on WFBC-FM going back into the 1940s, hosting a popular morning program called "Kitchen Capers."

To put this show in historical perspective of the times, WFBC Channel 4 had only been on the air for two and a half years at this point, first broadcasting on December 31, 1953. Jim Crockett would not put wrestling on WBTV in Charlotte until January of 1958. So the June 1956 "Carolina Wrestling" show was bound to be the first ever affiliated with Jim Crockett Promotions.

The show proved to be quite popular, both in ratings and in interest for tickets, which begs the question why it was relatively short-lived. As reported on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, wrestling would return to the studios of WFBC in Greenville in 1960 with hosts including Bob Poole, Bill Krieger and Billy Powell.

For Carroll Hall's first post on this information visit:
"Carolina Wrestling" on WFBC 4 in Greenville, SC"
http://allstarchampionshipwrestling.blogspot.com/2017/10/carolina-wrestling-on-wfbc-4-in.html

Ken Conrad Added to Crockett On-Air Talent Roster

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

For years we've wondered about the name of one of the promo announcers for Jim Crockett Promotions in the early 1980s. Through the recent help of some friends of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, we've solved that mystery.

We can now confirm that the man interviewing Jim Crockett, Jr. in the video above is Mr. Ken Conrad.

Conrad worked for Jim Crockett Promotions from the fall of 1981 until around February of 1982 (we're still researching the exact dates) hosting the local promotional spots that were inserted into the syndicated programs "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "World Wide Wrestling." He began not long after Crockett moved their studio television production from WRAL in Raleigh to WPCQ (now WRET) in Charlotte. He was a local radio personality at that time and may have even been involved with studio work at WPCQ.

Ken Conrad in 2009 (WTVI Blog)

Conrad has been on the radio in the Charlotte area for several decades, including successful stints at WEGO-AM in Concord, WAVO-FM in Rock Hill, and WNMX-FM and Lite 102.9 WLYT-FM in Charlotte. He currently serves part-time on the creative staff at WTVI television, the PBS affiliate in Charlotte. You may also recognize his voice as the P.A. announcer at BB&T Park in Charlotte for the Charlotte Knights baseball franchise.

With a little help from our friends, here's how we confirmed his identity:

I recently posted a photo of Conrad interviewing Dusty Rhodes and asked if anyone could help us identify him. Greg Price at NWALegends.com Fanfest linked our post to a Charlotte Radio/TV forum on Facebook and a fellow named Roy Rosen responded that it was Ken Conrad. Greg googled it and found a WTVI blog post about Ken joining them with a photo that pretty much confirmed it was him. The final confirmation came from Debbie Mrozinski of the Crockett Foundation who confirmed through Tommy Viola at the Charlotte Knights that our interviewer in 1981-1982 was indeed Ken Conrad. (He is listed on page 4 in the 2016 Charlotte Knights Media Guide.)

We are happy to finally know his identity and add his name to the roster of on-air broadcasting talent that worked for Jim Crockett Promotions over the years. That list can be found on the right hand side of the Studio Wrestling website, which is part of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway family of websites.

Can You Identify the Announcer?

Can you help us identify the announcer interviewing Dusty Rhodes in this image? We have been unable to determine his full name name.

Update - Sunday 10/16: We have identified him as Ken Conrad, a longtime radio personality in the Charlotte area and P.A. voice of the Charlotte Knights baseball team. Thanks to Greg Price at NWALegends.com for doing a little digging and solving this long held mystery.  We will be updating the site with full information on our mystery promo announcer this week.

Fans of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling from the early 1980s will remember him doing the 2 min 30 sec. local promotional segments that air twice during each syndicated episode of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "World Wide Wrestling." He only did this for a relatively short time period, from mid-1981 into early 1982. (The above screen capture is from October of 1981.)

We believe his first name is Ken, but we have no idea of his last name. He was interviewing Jim Crockett, Sr. on the "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" show taped 1/20/82 and Jim twice called him "Ken." Occasionally TV people used "working names," but we will assume at this point that Ken is his first name. That's all we've got to go on at this point.

We are guessing that he was either (1) a TV personality at the station where this was taped, WPCQ-36 in Charlotte, or (2) a local Charlotte area TV or radio personality.

Can you help us? Do you know the identity of our mystery announcer? Please write us using the address on our CONTACT PAGE on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

See the complete video of this promo plus more info over at the STUDIO WRESTLING website.

During the Break

Co-host David Crockett and Ric Flair wait during a commercial break of a taping of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling at WRAL TV studio in Raleigh, NC in 1981.

John Ringley: Jim Crockett's Early Relationship With Television

by Dick Bourne 
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

As mentioned earlier, I recently had the pleasure of a casual conversation with John Ringley, at one time the most trusted confidant of promoter Jim Crockett, Sr. He had graciously agreed to talk with me for a feature I am constantly updating related to the old TV studio taping locations of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. The following is another little "tidbit' about the wrestling and TV business in the early days gleaned from those conversations, plus a broader perspective on wrestling and TV's relationship in general. 

When Mr. Ringley and I began talking about the changes in presenting wrestling on television over the decades, one thing became clear: in the early days of TV, unlike today, professional wrestling was in an equal partnership with their television counterparts.

The 1940s and 1950s

Wrestling from New York and Chicago and the west coast had been a staple of national television in the 1950s. By the late 1950s, a growing percentage of  programming on local stations began originating from the studios of those stations, and wrestling was one of earliest programs on local television. 

In 1958, Charlotte, NC television station WBTV partnered with local wrestling promoter Jim Crockett, Sr. to produce live televised wrestling bouts in Charlotte. The arrangement was advantageous for both parties. WBTV needed original local programming, and Jim Crockett benefited from an effective and far reaching way to promote his weekly wrestling cards at the Charlotte Park Center.

Studio 2 at WBTV-3 in Charlotte

The 1960s

At first, the wrestling matches were broadcast live. Later, as technology improved, the station began to record the matches on huge reels of videotape and air them later. Eventually, Crockett soon began similar arrangements with other TV stations including WGHP TV in High Point, NC and WRAL TV in Raleigh.

Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, it was a barter arrangement with hardly any additional expenses for Jim Crockett Promotions. John Ringley explained how it worked at WBTV.

"Things were so different back in the day as it related to expenses," Ringley said. "It was a partnership with television. For example, at WBTV in Charlotte - - the only expense [Jim Crockett Promotions] had was buying dinner for the television studio floor crew at channel 3. That was it!"

And Big Jim made sure those boys always ate well.

The relationship was one of near perfection. Crockett didn’t have to pay for studio time. WBTV didn't have to pay for the wrestlers or the matches.  It was a simple arrangement, equally advantageous to both parties. Crockett promoted his upcoming live events in the area. WBTV got to sell advertising for the highly-rated program.

The only other expense was of course to get the ring set up and torn down in the channel 3 studio, a task that fell to longtime veteran wrestler and trusted Crockett lieutenant Wally Dusek and his crew.

The Crockett/WBTV relationship was put together by people at the top of each organization. "Charlie Crutchfield was the fellow we dealt with at channel 3," Ringley told me. Crutchfield was once president of  Jefferson-Pilot Broadcasting Company which owned WBTV. He had been with the Charlotte based broadcasting company since 1933, where he was a host on 1110 WBT-AM radio. "He was a powerful man, with ties to the highest levels of government and of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)," said Reno Bailey of Crutchfield on his BT Memories website. It is only fitting that James Crockett and Charles Crutchfield, two pillars of the Charlotte community for decades, worked together to make "Championship Wrestling" one of the early success stories of local television in the southeast.
 
WBTV stopped taping wrestling in 1973 when all of Crockett's local TV tapings were consolidated to WRAL studios in Raleigh.

"It was a great bunch of folks to work with for all those many years we did TV there (at WBTV), " Ringley told me.

Jerry Bledsoe Articles on Tom Miller a Double-Edged Sword

I've recently been enjoying some old newspaper articles about Tom Miller that Carroll Hall (over at the "All Star Championship Wrestling" website) came across awhile back. We both liked "Truckin'" Tom Miller as both a TV wrestling host and ring announcer in the 1970s and 1980s in the mid-Atlantic area.

Tom Miller

Tom was also a well-known and well-loved radio personality in Greensboro, Charlotte, and Danville and all over the southeast hosting shows aimed at late-night truck drivers and country music fans. He and his shows won several radio broadcasting awards.

North Carolina writer/publisher Jerry Bledsoe wrote these articles back in the 1970s and 1980s in the defunct Greensboro Daily News. Bledsoe is a very successful journalist and author of several best selling true-crime novels.

Reading Jerry's articles was a mixed blessing for me. First of all, it was wonderful he enjoyed writing so much about Tom; his writing serves as a record of a talented man and local personality that might otherwise not exist. These articles provide wonderful memories of Tom and his off-beat sense of humor, and gave Tom great exposure in the Greensboro area at the time.  But despite Jerry's obvious fondness for his friend, he never gave Tom's work in professional wrestling much weight.