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Promoter Paul Winkhaus
Paul Winkhaus was the promoter in Greenville and
Asheville and
surrounding areas for Jim Crockett Sr. in the 1950s and 1960s.
MORE INFO
TV Host and Sportscaster Munsey Millaway
WLOS was the home of "Wide
World Wrestling" and later "World Wide Wrestling" in the Asheville Greenville
Spartanburg market.
Wrestling related
Munsey Millaway reference on a
Radio/TV nostalgia forum (Scroll to bottom of linked page.)
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For some period of time in the 1960s and early 1970s (it's unclear for
exactly how long), the wrestling show taped in High Point, NC at the
studios of WGHP aired on WLOS television in Asheville. Championship
Wrestling was one of two Crockett Promotions shows that aired in the
market, along with All-Star Wrestling/Mid-Atlantic Championship
Wrestling which was taped at WRAL in Raleigh.
When WGHP host Charlie Harville would break away to do local spots for
his home market of Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, WLOS would break
away simultaneously and air their own local spots for the upcoming shows
at the Asheville City Auditorium. These spots were taped at the studios
of WLOS-TV. The host for these segments was Munsey Millaway, who
was the sports director at WLOS in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He sat at a desk with a wall behind
him which was full of 8x10 black and white photographs of various
wrestlers taken by Gene Gordon. Millaway would often be joined by Paul
Winkhaus, the local promoter for Jim Crockett, Sr. He and
Millaway would announce and discuss the upcoming matches for Asheville.
Millaway also attended the
matches on Wednesday nights at the Asheville City Auditorium and would
occasionally take a WLOS cameraman with him to record some of the
matches, highlights of which he would show on the 11:00 news that night.
Millaway told us in an interview for this feature that Mr. Winkhaus also
would occasionally bring wrestlers by the studio to tape interviews that
would be shown both during the Championship Wrestling cutaways and on
the evening sportscast.
"Sailor Art Thomas, Johnny
Weaver, George Becker and many others were brought to the station for
interviews," Millaway recalled. "These segments were extremely popular
on the newscasts. I don't think (station manager) Mort Cohn realized how
popular it would be. It got better ratings than any other sports on the
station."
WLOS Sports Director
Munsey Millaway in a publicity/promotional photograph from the late
1960s.
Millaway, now making his
home in Boone NC, looks back fondly on his days working with promoter
Paul Winkhaus promoting wrestling on WLOS. "Those were just wonderful
times, and I loved Mr. Winkhaus, my wife and I both did. There was no
finer gentleman than this man. A class act. He treated me wonderfully
and treated fans the same way."
When Millaway left WLOS in
the early 1970s, the sports director who replaced him was not as
enthusiastic about wrestling, and despite the ratings success of the
produced segments for the news, emphasis on wrestling at the station
waned.
In the summer of 1974, the WGHP show was replaced by the 2nd taping of
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling in Raleigh (for more info, visit the
WRAL page) which was hosted by Les
Thatcher. While it isn't clear when WLOS ceased doing their locally
produced promotional spots for WLOS, they certainly ended at this point
if they had not already. Thatcher did the voice over promotional spots
for Asheville and studio promos with the wrestlers were taped at WRAL in
Raleigh as well.
*Note: When Munsey
discusses wrestling on WLOS in this audio clip, he is referring to the
station's coverage of professional wrestling during its newscasts, and
not necessarily the wrestling program that aired on Saturdays.
Special thanks to Don Holbrook for his assistance with this feature.
Special thanks to Munsey
Millaway for the providing the photo from WLOS TV.
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STATION HISTORY
WLOS channel 13 is the ABC television
affiliate in Asheville, North Carolina. It also serves other portions of
western North Carolina, upstate South Carolina, northeastern Georgia and
far-eastern Tennessee, including Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson.
The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group and its sister
station to WBSC-TV, the market's WB affiliate. WLOS' transmitter is
located atop Mount Pisgah.
The station signed on air on September 18, 1954. However, its signal
didn't reach the entire market. The South Carolina portion of the market
was served by WAIM-TV, channel 40 in Anderson. WLOS boosted its signal
in to cover the South Carolina portion in 1979, and pressured ABC to
drop its affiliation with WAIM.
The station was owned by Anchor Media; it was then owned by Wometco
until 1984, when the company was sold to the investment firm Kohlberg
Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). WLOS was later sold to River City
Broadcasting, which merged with Sinclair in 1996. Ironically, channel 40
in Anderson, now WB affiliate WBSC-TV, is now operated and effectively
owned by Sinclair.
Source: Wikipedia
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