Recreating a Crosley Broadcasting Program

In an earlier note, I talked about recreating "The 50-50 Club," which Crosley Broadcasting transmitted from its television stations in Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Indianapolis in the 1950s and 1960s. That was for the April 29 launch of Before Oprah: Ruth Lyons, the Woman Who Created Talk TV. There were two events that day, one at 11:00 AM, the other at 6:00 PM. You can see a portion of the morning event (which included WLWT announcer Bill Myers, singer Colleen Sharp, Ruth's former secretary Mickey Fisher, and producer Dick Murgatroyd) here:
http://www.wlwt.com/video/19335128/index.html

There's a partial interview with me in that segment, too. A lengthier video of the reenactment of "The 50-50 Club" that we did for the evening signing is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh2qiLKpYG4

The actress who portrays Ruth Lyons is Shelley Bamberger Bailey. Her performance was outstanding!
--Mike

The Station that Crosley Built: Final Analog Broadcast

WLWT (or, as many of us grew up knowing it, WLW-T) is among the television broadcasters wrapping up their analog activities tonight--Friday, June 12, 2009--at Midnight.

Bill Myers (shown in in WLWT's studio in the picture) kindly sent along the URL for the final broadcast, already archived ahead of time. Click here to view the program. There's a commerical, of course; just wait patiently. Bill is the announcer, and the video includes a whirlwind overview of Cincinnati TV, with shots of Paul Dixon, Bob Braun, Ruth Lyons, the Cincinnati Reds and Pete Rose, Jerry Springer, and more.

"What fun we had!" Bill wrote in the note that accompanied the above photo. "We were lucky to be a part of it. As Pete Grant would say, 'Goodnight. Time's up! Goodnight, all.' "
--Mike