(L) Johnny Weaver lifts Rip Hawk in this
rare photo from the WBTV studios. (R) An art slide used to in 1967 to
promote the wrestling program, taken from the
BT Memories website.
Two screen captures from rare archival
video from a 1961 taping of Championship Wrestling at WBTV. The images
are from a match between US Champion Buddy Rogers and Joe
Garcia.
(L) NWA President Sam Muchnick in the ring with
George Harbin, a former wrestler who was ring announcer for the WBTV
studio matches. (R) Ole Anderson prepares for his match in the ring at
WBTV.
TV Guide advertisement for Championship
Wrestling with Big Bill Ward
on WBTV-3 in Charlotte. (June 1968)
An ad for an upcoming wrestling program in
a Charlotte wrestling program from 1967.
BIG BILL'S
CLUBHOUSE:
Remembering Big Bill Ward
and WBTV
by Mike Cline
During the infancy of that "fad" (some
claimed) called television, a station employee was often called on to
wear many hats. In one day, he might have covered a news story (shooting
his own film footage--and it was real film in those days), be the on-air
weatherman, and then in the early evening, host a prime-time movie.
Part of the job.
One such employee at WBTV-Channel 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina (the
first commercial TV station in both Carolinas) was a man named Bill
Ward, or as he was known on the air, "Big" Bill Ward.
MORE >>
A Collection of Wrestling Related Links on BT Memories
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STATION HISTORY
WBTV, known on-air as "WBTV 3", is the CBS
affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina, the 28th largest market in the
United States. It is owned by Greensboro-based insurance and
broadcasting conglomerate Jefferson-Pilot, which also owns WCSC-TV in
Charleston, South Carolina and WWBT-TV in Richmond, Virginia.
Jefferson-Pilot's broadcasting operations are headquartered in
Charlotte, making it one of only three locally-owned and operated
stations in the market (the others being Fox's WCCB-TV and independent
WHKY-TV).
Jefferson-Pilot (then known as Jefferson
Standard) took this station to the air on January 15, 1949. It was the
first television station in the Carolinas and the oldest between
Richmond and Atlanta—beating Greensboro's WFMY-TV (another CBS
affiliate) by a few months. Jefferson-Pilot got into Charlotte
broadcasting two years earlier when it bought the city's oldest radio
station, WBT-AM 1110—the first fully licensed radio station in the
South. It still owns the radio station today.
WBTV has always been a CBS affiliate, but
had secondary affiliations with NBC until 1957, when WSOC-TV signed on.
It shared ABC programming with WSOC until 1964, when WCCB signed on.
Despite this, it is one of only a few stations in the country (not
counting owned and operated stations) that has had the same call
letters, the same owner, the same channel location and the same primary
network affiliation throughout its history. When Atlanta's WAGA-TV
switched to Fox in 1994, WBTV became the longest continuously-affiliated
CBS station south of Washington, DC.
For many years, WBTV was the far-and-away
market leader. In fact, its dominance was so absolute that it was once
said the dials of most Charlotteans' TV sets were "rusted on channel 3."
Since the '90s, however, WSOC has taken a large lead in the news race.
However, WBTV still has a small lead sign-on to sign-off because it's
the only Charlotte station that puts a decent signal into the mountains
(the Charlotte market includes several counties in the Blue Ridge
region) without the need for translators.
WBTV generally clears the entire CBS
lineup, but sometimes preempts CBS' college football and basketball
coverage in favor of Jefferson-Pilot's Atlantic Coast Conference sports
programming. For many years, it also preempted whatever game show CBS
aired at 10:30, instead airing the previous day's Price is Right before
airing a noon news and variety show, "Top O' the Day," at 11:30 am.
On October 10, 2005, Jefferson-Pilot agreed
to merge with Philadelphia-based Lincoln Financial Group, another
century-old life insurance company. The merged company will retain the
Lincoln name and be based in Philadelphia. Jefferson-Pilot's
broadcasting group will be part of the merged company and retain the
Jefferson-Pilot Communications name. (Credit
- Wikipedia)
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