When I was a kid growing up, and while we were home, family time was time spent talking at the dinner table (after the 6 p.m. local news on the radio ended at 6:15) and then watching the one television in our house that we sat in front of, viewing whatever program dad chose for the whole family to watch .

As many who are members of my generation can remember, we grew up watching three channels on that television, those being Channels 2, 4, and 7, all transmitted from Buffalo. Watching TV as much as we did, we became familiar with many of the personalities and some of the programs those three channels offered before they switched over to their national affiliates (Channel 2 – NBC; Channel 4 – CBS; and Channel 7 – ABC, just as they’ve remained up to the present), after the 6 p.m. local news and before switching back to local news at 11 p.m.

Some of the names I recall that stand out in my mind, and some of the programs I recall seeing or hearing about that I remember from Channel 2 (WGR before it was WGRZ) were Newsman Ron Hunter, who was so appealing that they didn’t call the news “Channel 2 News,” or “Action News,” WGR decided to call it, “The Ron Hunter Report.” Hunter had a lot of influence on another Buffalo personality moving to Western New York back then, a young man named Ed Kilgore, who became a mainstay in the reporting of Buffalo Sports for many years on Channel 2.

Besides Hunter, I remember the likes of sports reporter extraordinaire, Bill Mazur, who did the morning program. I remember some of the other personalities: Rich Kellman, Sheila Murphy, Wes Goforth, and Barry Lillis, (Lillis, a WGR-TV weatherman, excuse me, meteorologist, who left the television business to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood). Later on, Channel 2 also had a local competitive bowling show called “Bowling for Dollars,” hosted by Kilgore, which we watched from time to time. As far as children’s programs went, I just remember Channel 2 for its Saturday cartoon programs, and shows like “The Mickey Mouse Club,” “Fury,” and “My Friend Flicka.”

Changing the channel to Channel 4, WBEN, and I just did that without using a remote, and remembering more from Channel 4 than the other two channels, as Channel 4 was the one dad watched the most, I remember reporters like Ralph Hubbell, father of Jamestown Sports Radio personality Pete Hubbell, Dick Rifenburg, Dunkirk’s own Van Miller, and Chuck Healy. I also recall Chuck Lampkin, John Corbett, Alan Contantini, also from Dunkirk, NY, Rich Newberg, Gary Gunter, John Beard ,recently retired from Channel 2 News, and Kevin O’Connell, who also left Channel 4 for Channel 2 and has enjoyed a long tenure reporting the weather for the now WGRZ network. Hubbell and Miller, at one time were part of the Buffalo Bills broadcast booth announcing crew.

Channel 4 had some memorable programs, especially ones I watched as a kid growing up. I remember “Uncle Jerry’s Club,” (Jerry Brick), the holiday “A Visit to Santa Claus” (Ed Dinsmore becoming Buffalo TV first Santa Claus) featuring supporting characters like Forgetful the Elf, Grumbles the Elf, and Freezer the Polar Bear. I remember “Uncle Mike,” starring Mike Mearian and his marionette sidekick, Buttons. Later, that show took on a nautical theme and became “Captain Mike with Buttons the Cabin Boy.” I remember watching bowling show “Beat the Champ” hosted by Chuck Healy each week. Healy and Hubbell also hosted a local wrestling program that aired early on Saturday night often featuring Jamestowner, Basil “Cappy” Caprino as a ring referee. Another bowling program, featuring women bowlers, later aired on Channel 4, was “Strikes, Spares, and Misses,” and there was the very popular quiz show, “It’s Academic” which we enjoyed playing at home trying to answer the questions asked on the show. And who could forget the long running afternoon show, “Meet the Millers,” starring ex-vaudevillians, Bill and Mildred Miller, who presented a “home show” for 20 years. Some of my recollections of that show included Mildred doing most of the talking and telling Bill what to do (especially during the cooking segments) and Bill dutifully doing what he was told to do.

Getting up and turning the channel to Channel 7, WKBW, there were some memorable personalities we watched on that channel, and they had some great shows as well, for us to enjoy. There were the “Big Three” from Channel 7, who I think everyone who watched that channel can name, Irv Weinstein, Rick Azar, and Tom Jolles. They took us through news, sports, and weather for so many years together. I also remember personalities, Stan Barron, Danny Neaverth, Mary Travers, John Murphy, who later moved to Channel 4 and found his way into the Buffalo Bills broadcast booth sitting alongside the legendary Van Miller. Another reporter hard to forget because he seemed to enthusiastically “bubble” over in each of his segments on Channel 7 was the ever smiling, Clip Smith.

Some of the Channel 7 programming of that time included “Rocketship 7,” which featured weatherman Dave Thomas (born David Boreanaz, then known as Dave Roberts when he left Buffalo), and Promo the Robot. Thomas, I believe, later hosted the show, “Dialing for Dollars,” as well. Afternoons saw Tom Jolles step into a phone booth and change personalities from a mild mannered weatherman (I know, I know, a meteorologist) into a Sci-Fi space leader as the host of “The Commander Tom Show,” later called “Commander Tom and Friends, featuring the characters Dustmop the dog, Matty the Mod (alligator) and Cecily Fripple (modeled after comedienne Phyllis Diller, and her evil sister, Cecile. I remember Frankie Yankovic’s popular dance program, “Polka Time.” My folks were pretty good on the dance floor and they enjoyed doing a good polka now and then, hence the occasional viewership of this program in the Lombardo home. I also remember watching, whenever I could change the channel, as Dad didn’t like the repetitiveness of telethons, but I liked watching the annual “Variety Club Telethon,” usually scheduled for the first weekend in March, featuring local and national celebrities, for many years hosted by “Smiling” Jack Smith, and later by the ever popular ‘greaser,” Bowser, from the Rock and Roll fifties-style group, “Sha Na Na.”

A lot of memories from just three small local-based television stations that provided a lot of the entertainment during my youth and adolescent years. Pretty good entertainment without use of remotes, (we were the remotes, and there wasn’t much channel surfing during commercials, as we would have to keep getting up, walking across the room and having to repeat the process.), without color (we didn’t get a color set until the 1970s, and only watching three channels. Please note, though, the list of personalities and programs in this narrative are only things that stand out in my memory. I know I didn’t touch on the hundreds more people and shows that have been on Channels 2, 4, and 7 since the birth of those stations and ones that so many other readers recall from their flipping among the three channels in their pasts.

It’s amazing what we did for fun, and actually had fun, with the limited choices we had back in our day. I often think I grew up at the greatest time a person could live. It amazes me to hear young people say that television is boring with the multiple television sets per household and the hundreds of channel choices they have today, and then I look at a time when we had one TV per household with only three channels available to us.

In our day television wasn’t really as easy as 1,2,3, it was more like being as easy as 2,4,7.