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Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Discussion pertaining to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Port Huron, and SW Ontario
Deleted User 7620

Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by Deleted User 7620 » Wed Mar 13, 2019 2:47 pm

What was the station like, when it was owned by the Detroit news? Did that station have any legendary talent, or any popular news personalities?

I am asking, because the station isn’t talked about much during the WWJ days. I know there was Sonny Elliot but that’s all that I’ve heard, as far as news talent.



JackAttack FM
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by JackAttack FM » Wed Mar 13, 2019 3:30 pm

In the late 60's and most of the 70's it was crap.
Its newscasts were being eaten alive by channel 2 and channel 7.  Channel 4's news was adequate but, behind whatever ABC and Storer were doing.
The only thing it had going for it was Sonny Eliot and Carol Duvall. At least those are the two I remembered from that era... and the Tigers when they moved over from TV2.
Sonny's zoo show was fun.

The Detroit News was supposedly really cheap too. Making station employees pay for parking on its own lot. The building WWJ-TV was in was next door to the current WDIV building. The newsroom was in this big studio type room with the anchor desk in the middle. Dean Miller was one of the main anchors back then. I think it's he was a former soap opera star? Some of the bigger named reporters like Ven Marshall and Al Ackerman had already left for channel 7. 

I think Bowling for Dollars was on then too.
I can't think of any good syndication it had.

Basically nobody talks about it because nobody watched it.
In the 50's and early 60's it was supposedly a really entertaining station.



sfpcc
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by sfpcc » Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:12 pm

On Saturday mornings they had a clown called Oopsy. Even for a clown he was very strange looking. He was played by Bob McNea who was a former Bozo.

Around the time of the change they always seemed to show All In The Family and Barney Miller Reruns in the late afternoon. They also didn't show the first couple of seasons of SNL, (they ended up on 50.)

As a young kid I always seemed to prefer Channel 7 for some reason For reasons I can't really explain.



sfpcc
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by sfpcc » Thu Mar 14, 2019 2:29 am

[quote=sfpcc post_id=566605 time=1552507977 user_id=4168]
On Saturday mornings they had a clown called Oopsy. Even for a clown he was very strange looking. He was played by Bob McNea who was a former Bozo.

Around the time of the change they always seemed to show All In The Family and Barney Miller Reruns in the late afternoon. They also didn't show the first couple of seasons of SNL, (they ended up on 50.)

As a young kid I always seemed to prefer Channel 7 for some reason I can't really explain.
[/quote]



TomSanders
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by TomSanders » Thu Mar 14, 2019 2:41 am

I remember their legal ID, ""WWJ-TV, The Detroit News," from when I became aware of who owned the local radio and TV stations. And that, in each hour's Detroit News daily TV listings, and in the Sunday TV supplement, 4 always came first, followed by 2 and 7, then Toledo and the UHFs.



borderboy653659200
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by borderboy653659200 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 10:27 am

I went to high school with a racist broad who dated Bob McNea's son .



borderboy653659200
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by borderboy653659200 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 10:32 am

Channel 4 became WDIV-TV in the summer of '77,around my 24th birthday,just before I went to St. Clair College here in Windsor and a month before Elvis died. They had a bigoted sportscaster named Bob Hillman who,as I remember,was fired for making prejudiced remarks about Reggie Jackson .("Mr.October," that is,not the Pistons' point guard.) Big Jim Forney,I believe,replaced Hillman and did a good job,but only lasted a couple of years .



borderboy653659200
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by borderboy653659200 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 10:45 am

Oopsy replaced Bozo because of concerns that Bozo was too aggressive for young children .



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moldyoldie
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by moldyoldie » Thu Mar 14, 2019 11:06 am

Dick Westercamp
Sonny Elliot
Don Kremer


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- Sydney J. Harris

borderboy653659200
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by borderboy653659200 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 11:42 am

Thanks for reminding us about newsman Dick Westercamp and sports another Don Kremer,who with Chuck "Buck" Walby hosted "Bowling For Dollars ."



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bjmcdevitt
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by bjmcdevitt » Thu Mar 14, 2019 3:52 pm

Bob Allison hosted Bowling for Dollars for a time as well


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sfpcc
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by sfpcc » Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:20 pm

[quote=borderboy653659200 post_id=566679 time=1552574724 user_id=14801]
Oopsy replaced Bozo because of concerns that Bozo was too aggressive for young children .
[/quote]

As clowns go Oopsy was kind of laid back.



borderboy653659200
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by borderboy653659200 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:43 pm

Ed Tyll was at WKRK about 20 years ago,but seems to have disappeared . Anyone know where he is today ?



borderboy653659200
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Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by borderboy653659200 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:45 pm

Oopsy was laid back,but I recall Bozo's using a (fake) hammer in one of his skits .



Deleted User 14935

Re: Channel 4 in the pre-WDIV days

Post by Deleted User 14935 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:45 pm

I hope he did he could hurt someone.



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