Dialing for Dollars
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Dialing for Dollars was a franchised format local television program in the United States and Canada, popular in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The program's usual format had the host, a local television personality, announce a certain password (a/k/a "the count and the amount") to the audience at the beginning of the program and then randomly select a phone number from a bowl or drum (from those that had been previously submitted by viewers) and call it. If the viewer was watching the show, they would know that they were being called, answer the phone with the correct password, and would win a monetary prize. If the number did not answer, the prize money would continue to increase.
Dialing for Dollars originated as a radio program in 1939 on WCBM in Baltimore, Maryland, hosted by Homer Todd. With the rapid development of commercial television broadcasting in the U.S. in the late 1940s and 1950s, the format switched to television and was franchised nationally as a popular, low-budget way to fill local market airtime, especially in the late mornings.
By the mid-1970s, the popularity of the Dialing for Dollars format faded as competition from daytime talk shows developed and more sophisticated game shows were syndicated. Another factor in the show's decline was the trend of fewer households having stay-at-home members available to answer the phone during the day. Although still seen in a few markets, Dialing for Dollars left the Baltimore airwaves in 1977, after giving away $800,000 locally in its 38-year run there on radio and television.[1]
Broadway producer Lee Guber attempted to resurrect the concept on a national basis in 1987, meeting with Canadian broadcaster Peter Emmerson with regards to hosting what would have emanated from the former GFG Productions facilities in Brooklyn. The project was never completed due to Mr. Guber's soon-to-be-diagnosed illness, passing away of a brain tumor on March 27, 1988.
Janis Joplin sings about the show in the song "Mercedes Benz":
- "Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?
- Dialing for Dollars is trying to find me.
- I wait for delivery each day until three,
- So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?"
The program has also been satirized on Second City TV.
Live with Regis and Kelly carries on the tradition with its daily Trivia Agogo contest.
[edit] List of stations that carried Dialing for Dollars
- CICT-TV (formerly CFAC) – Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- KARK – Little Rock, Arkansas
- KPAC-TV – Port Arthur, Texas
- KCOP – Los Angeles, California
- KCPQ – Seattle, Washington
- KCRG-TV – Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- KJEO-TV – Fresno, California
- KODE-TV – Joplin, Missouri
- KOAT-TV – Albuquerque, New Mexico
- KPHO – Phoenix, Arizona
- KPTV – Portland, Oregon
- KTHV – Little Rock, Arkansas, under a different title, to compete with KARK
- KTRK-TV – Houston, Texas
- KSTP-TV - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
- KTSM-TV – El Paso, Texas
- KTVI-TV – Saint Louis, Missouri
- KTVU – Oakland, California, Pat McCormick hosted the show
- KXLY-TV – Spokane, Washington
- KXMB-TV – Bismarck, North Dakota (during the 1970s)
- WAAY-TV – Huntsville, Alabama
- WAVY-TV – Norfolk, Virginia
- WBRC-TV – Birmingham, Alabama
- WJKS-TV – Jacksonville, Florida
- WDSU-TV – New Orleans, Louisiana
- WFAA-TV – Dallas, Texas
- WFTV – Orlando, Florida, hosted by Pete Forgione
- WGHP-TV – High Point, North Carolina
- WHBQ-TV – Memphis, Tennessee (1960s - September 1, 1978)
- WHO-TV – Des Moines, Iowa
- WISN-TV – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- WJZ-TV – Baltimore, Maryland, used The Hustle as the theme music and at one point in the 1980s, Oprah Winfrey hosted the show.[2]
- WKBW-TV – Buffalo, New York, this show was never technically cancelled. Its name was changed when Dave Thomas/Dave Roberts left the station for WPVI in 1978, and the show was renamed without the Dialing for Dollars franchise to AM Buffalo, which still airs today.
- WLBZ – Bangor, Maine
- WLNE-TV – New Bedford, Massachusetts, George Allen hosted the show
- WMAR-TV – Baltimore, Maryland (1948 - 1977), hosted by George Rogers and then Stu Kerr
- WNAC-TV – Boston, Massachusetts
- WNEP-TV – Scranton, Pennsylvania
- WNEW-TV – New York City (mid-1960s)
- WPLG-TV – Miami, Florida
- WPTV-TV – West Palm Beach, Florida, Dave Davis hosted the show
- WPVI-TV – Philadelphia, PA, first hosted by Bob McLean in 1973, who would later host a talk show in Canada on CBC Television
- WXEX-TV (now WRIC-TV) – Richmond, Virginia
- WROC-TV – Rochester, New York, hosted by Ann Keefe
- WREX-TV – Rockford, Illinois
- WSB-TV – Atlanta, Georgia
- WTCN-TV - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Mel Jass hosted Dialing for Dollars as a segment incorporated into his Mel's Matinee Movie programme in the early 1970's.
- WTAE-TV – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- WLCY-TV / WTSP – St. Petersburg, Florida
- WTVC-TV – Chattanooga, Tennessee
- WXIA-TV – Atlanta, Georgia, Linda Faye Carson and Don Barber hosted the show
A similar format, The Money Man, was used on WLOS-TV Asheville, North Carolina, in the late 1960s. Host Bob Caldwell would call viewers and ask them to tell how much money was in the jackpot and name the show or star of the day. This aired in late afternoons, during reruns of Perry Mason and the station's 5:30 PM newscast.
[edit] References
- ^ Scott Shane, "Television host Stu Kerr dies", Baltimore Sun, July 18, 1994.
- ^ Oprah Winfrey Timeline
