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Short history of WGRB, by Mark Hale Nine year veteran of Campbellsville's WGRB-Tv - physically in Cane Valley - remembers job there as his favorite Comments re article 43776: Query Reader wants to know more about WGRB-Tv 34 By Mark Hale If I remember correctly WGRB TV 34 signed on the air in April of 1983. I began working there in December 1984 and was there for 9 years. The station was owned by Billy Speer of Campbellsville. Campbellsville was the city it was licensed in, but its physical address was in Cane Valley, Adair Co., KY. During my time there, I worked under four different managers. Lynda Lynch was the first, a lady with some broadcast experience. She and her husband Dave moved here from New York, I think. Next was Mike Harding, a man well rounded in television broadcasting. He had done it all. From on air talent in Boston to managing several stations. He was also well versed in broadcast law. Mike brought the station out of bankruptcy and had it making money when he left to move to Florida. There he stayed in TV and soon bought 3 stations in Wisconsin. He has since sold those stations. The next manager was a lady from Campbellsville; her name was Becky she only stayed there for a short time, after which long time traffic manager Anita Begley took the reins. Anita did a fantastic job as manager. She had never had any formal training to run a TV station, but Mike Harding taught her well. She was one of my favorite bosses of all time. Well, all worked well with her. She knew the business of that station. When I first started working there we were a independent station. We aired a lot of old programs like the 3 stooges, Zane Gray, High Chapparal and so forth. We had lots of local programming too. I would guess that Dr. Hogan is retired now. On air talent Steve Shaw hosted a show with the good Dr. taking phone calls about heath issues. The show was very successful. Steve Shaw was a remarkable talent and I think he lives in Louisville now. He also had a very popular show called "Night Talk." He, along with Kathy Milby just talked and joked with people on the street in Campbellsville usually on Friday nights. The show was really funny and had great viewership. I believe Dr. Gene Scott retired his on air presence to his daughter who now does something in California. That was the last I heard anyway. Later the station became an affiliate and we purchased another station, Channel 40, in Bowling Green. Channel 40 sold and I think WBKO owns its license now. Channel 34 is still in business as the CW in Louisville. The call letters are WBKI and I believe they are still licensed in Campbellsville. But they are strictly a Louisville operation. Lots of our talent that we had back then is still on the air. Most notably locally are Alan Reed and Marty Bagby. Connie Leonard works at Channel 3 in Louisville with the News Dept. She has been there for several years now. Also Nancy Cox works at channel 18 on the news in Lexington, and before he was so popular, Chris Allen from WBKO worked as the production mgr during the Linda Lynch years. I really miss our local TV station and wish someone could get us a high power station going again. It is very expensive to start a new station up and I don't think this area could support a new one starting up. If we still had WGRB, I really believe it would have been doing very well now. There are so many great people that I worked with there and I enjoyed every minute of it. Things got a little hairy at times but I think it was probably my most favorite job in my life. -Mark Hale This story was posted on 2011-04-19 04:39:21
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