WLWT-TV news anchors and reporters filled many of the tables, but I was most interested in seeing those old familiar faces from Cincinnati’s Golden Age of Television.
Singers Colleen Sharp and Nancy James. Weatherman-announcer Bill Myers. Producer-director Dick Murgatroyd. Rob Braun, son of Channel 5’s Bob Braun Show host. Pam Sibcy, daughter of longtime morning host Paul Dixon.
They gathered for the WLWT-TV Hall of Fame induction of Dixon, Murgatroyd, company founder Powel Crosley Jr., late News 5 managing editor Bill Hager, and veteran news reporter John London. Also attending were behind-the-scenes Channel 5 veterans Jesse Jackson, engineer Bill Ankenbauer, and set-up crew member Bill Knight.
London, a Middletown native who’s still working part-time at WLWT-TV in his 70s, put into perspective for the younger members of the newsroom in attendance the impact that WLWT-TV had in the 1960s, when Channel 5 filled the daytime airwaves with top-rated live local shows.
“Long before I was employed by Channel 5, I had felt the connection to Channel 5 because I grew up in a Channel 5 household. At 9 o’clock (in the morning) everything would stop so my mom could watch Paul Dixon. And at noon, my mother would watch everyone’s mother (Ruth Lyons) because it would have to be a family emergency to miss Ruth Lyons’ show,” he said.
“I know if my parents were alive today, they would be hovering above Cloud 9 knowing that their son is in the Channel 5 Hall of Fame.”
Murgatroyd, a 1959 Ohio State University graduate, started his career in 1964 at WLWC-TV (now WCMH) in his hometown of Columbus. He came to WLWT-TV in 1966 and directed shows starring Lyons, Dixon and Braun.
In the late 1960s, WLWT had three live shows — Paul Dixon, Bob Braun and an afternoon show hosted by Vivienne Della Chiesa — “each with an orchestra and audiences every day — and on weekends we had Midwestern Hayride,” Murgatroyd recalled.
The Dixon, Braun and Hayride shows also aired live on sister stations in Dayton, Columbus and Indianapolis from WLWT-TV’s Crosley Square at 9th and Elm streets Downtown. Crosley Broadcasting bought the former Elks lodge in 1942 to get WLW radio entertainers out of the studios in the Arlington Street plant, which was making a top-secret weapon for World War II.
“The building was not made for TV. It was an old Elks club. We couldn’t do some of the things that other stations could,” said Murgatroyd, who was helped on stage by Braun. For years “Murgy” was the keeper of the flame for the Braun show family after it was canceled in 1984, organizing many reunion performances for years.
Murgatroyd and Sharp, one of Dixon’s sidekicks, tried to describe the crazy, unpredictable live show by Dixon, a former WCPO-AM disc jockey who transitioned in 1949 to the debut of WCPO-TV by pantomiming to records. He was so popular that Dixon went to New York in 1954 to host a show in the national DuMont network — then came back in 1955 to work at WLWT-TV until his death.
“He was just funny. He had a funny bone from the top of his head to the tip of his toes,” Sharp said. “He had binoculars to look at ladies’ legs. It got a little bit spicy. He had Hot Pants Day. Big Girls Day. And Baby Day for mothers with babies eight months or younger. He was just a funny, funny guy.”
Like Lyons and Braun, Dixon had a “run down“ listing segments and commercials, but not an actual script.
“You never knew what Paul was going to do until he came out (to start the show),” Murgatroyd said. “And Paul could get away with anything you could think of doing on the show and the women loved it. He gave out huge salamis. He had ‘Kneesville,’ and he’d look at them with binoculars.”
Dixon’s most famous stunt was devoting the entire 90-minute show to a wedding ceremony for two rubber chickens, Pauline and Harry, on March 11, 1969. Dixon’s antics inspired young David Letterman, an Indianapolis weatherman who watched Paul Dixon on old WLWI-TV (Channel 13) in Indianapolis.
Sibcy, who accepted the award for her late father, said “his enthusiasm was absolutely contagious.” He died at 56 of a heart attack 50 years ago, on Dec. 28, 1974.
It was very appropriate for the lunch to be held at Crosley’s Pinecroft estate on Kipling Avenue in Mount Airy, where the WLW founder and Cincinnati entrepreneur lived until his death in 1961. Crosley’s engineers experimented with television in the 1930s, before WLWT-TV became Cincinnati’s first TV station in 1948, the second in Ohio and the 20th in the nation.
“Powell Crosley left an indelible mark not only on our station, but also on our industry,” said Branden Frantz, WLWT-TV president and general manager.
Rusty McClure, grandson of Crosley’s younger brother and business partner Lewis, told how Powel got into the radio business in 1921 when he refused to pay $130 for a radio set for his son. Powel instead bought the parts and built a radio for $10.
The visionary Crosley also instantly recognized that radio “is not a kid’s toy. It’s the next big thing.”
So his company made 60-70 prototypes and gave them to their salesmen. “They had one million orders in a year,” McClure said. Powel Crosley became the “Henry Ford of radios” with Lewis Crosley’s engineering and organizational skills to oversee manufacturing inexpensive sets for the masses. Then Powel started WLW-AM in 1922 so his customers would have something to listen to on their radios.
Newsroom manager Bill Hager, who died in 2022, was described as “the journalist soul of News 5 for almost 25 years." He led Channel 5’s breaking news coverage, edited almost all of the stories, coordinated countless candidate debates and oversaw political coverage for News 5. He won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award and three regional Emmy Awards.
Primary news co-anchor Sheree Paolello said Hager was a mentor to her, and a generation of reporters and anchors. Hager died bicycling at age 51.
“I’d give almost anything to not be standing on this stage. I wish Bill was here.” said his brother Greg Hager. “He loved working with all of you. Please keep shining your light into dark places. My brother would appreciate that.”
London’s boss, news director Jeff Benscoter, revealed that every day London sends a poem to coworkers. So Benscoter saluted him with his own poem, “Ode to JLo.”
Retired weekend anchor Courtis Fuller praised London’s depth of knowledge on a wide range of topics from jazz (Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck) to Jerry Garcia, pro and college sports to Hulk Hogan and professional wrestling. Fuller was inducted into the station’s Hall of Fame inaugural class last year with talk show hosts Ruth Lyons, Bob Braun and Jerry Springer; executive Walter Bartlett; and salesman Jerry Imsicke.
London, a Fenwick High School graduate, did radio news for Middletown’s WPFB-AM and WUBE-AM early in his career. He described himself as “an old radio guy” with a face and hair for radio. He “had no desire to go into TV” until a conversation with Channel 5 anchor Springer while covering the Air Canada disaster in 1983.
“Jerry Springer got me to come to Channel 5,” he said. He was hired in 1984.
“To be included in this group, it’s a very, very special honor,” London said. “The list of thank yous is 40 years long."
After leaving Channel 5, Murgatroyd was active in Republican politics as Kenton County Judge Executive (1999-2004) and a deputy chief of staff to Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher (2004-05). He also shared his passion for television as a broadcasting teacher at the University of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky University.
“I loved WLW. What a great time we had. We enjoyed it every day, and we worked very hard,” he said. “I’m very proud to be part of the entertainment shows in the heyday of WLW, the live programs in what we called the Golden Age of Television.”
