AM Buffalo
Encyclopedia
AM Buffalo is an American television talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....

 based in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

. The program has aired on WKBW-TV
WKBW-TV
WKBW-TV, channel 7, is the ABC affiliate for the Buffalo, New York television market, and is one of many local Buffalo TV stations seen over-the-air and on cable in Canada. Its transmitter is located at 8909 Center Street in Colden. The station is owned by the Granite Broadcasting Corporation, who...

 since its founding in 1978 and is hosted by Linda Pellegrino. Jon Summers serves as a reporter and announcer for the program; on days that Pellegrino or Summers is not available, WKBW program director John DiScuillo fills in.

Previous hosts include Brian Kahle, Nancy Foreman, Cindy Abbott, Drew Kahn, and Helen Tederous; the hourlong program has aired weekdays on WKBW at 10:00 AM since its inception, with a few temporary time changes. The show was part of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's "AM (city)
AM America
AM America was a morning news program produced by ABC in an attempt to compete with the highly rated Today on NBC. The show never found an audience after its premiere on January 6, 1975...

" franchise, the same franchise that spawned The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....

(which was originally AM Chicago) and Live with Regis and Kelly
Live with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...

(which traces its history to AM Los Angeles).

The show dates back to 1978 after the discontinuation of the national Dialing for Dollars
Dialing for Dollars
Dialing for Dollars was a franchised format local television program in the United States and Canada, popular in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.-Format:...

franchise, and has historically followed a similar format. Hosts during this era include Nolan Johannes, Liz Dribben
Liz Dribben
Elizabeth "Liz" Dribben was a radio and television host from Buffalo, New York. She is best known for her time as a producer for CBS News from 1972 to 1993. Her previous work included at WKBW-TV in Buffalo and radio stations WEVD and WNYC in New York City.-References:...

 (1964 to 1968), and Dave Thomas
Dave Roberts (David Thomas Boreanaz)
David Thomas Boreanaz is a retired American television broadcaster who broadcast under the stage names Dave Thomas in Buffalo, New York, and Dave Roberts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the main weatherman for WPVI-TV in Philadelphia from 1983 until his retirement in 2009...

.

The show is mostly paid segments, with sponsors as "guests." During major news events, the show turns into a general interest call-in talk show. Cooking segments and local musicians are also occasionally featured, and there are some celebrity interviews (via satellite) conducted in coordination with advertising promotions, often involving call-in contests where listeners can win prizes. In 2008, the show relaunched the "Jackpot Call" from Dialing for Dollars. The show often ends with a music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

.

One of AM Buffalo's most novel contests was a contest known as Who Wants to be a Trivianaire, a local version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television game show which offers large cash prizes for correctly answering a series of multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. The format is owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television International. The maximum cash prize is one million pounds...

 complete with Millionaire music and graphics. Usually played during the summer, contestants called in and answered one multiple-choice question for a prize package. When Millionaire left ABC, Trivianaire was cancelled.

The show's theme music, after several years of generic jazz- and light-themed music, switched to the vocal version of Move Closer to Your World
Move Closer to Your World
Move Closer to Your World is a television news music package composed by jingle writer Al Ham under his Mayoham Music label. In the 1970s it was considered an anthem for local television news, and is considered the anthem of WPVI-TV in Philadelphia for its Action News programs to the current day...

in December 2008, as recognition of the show celebrating its 30th anniversary (and the station as a whole celebrating its 50th as well as changing back to its Eyewitness News format, which uses the theme). For summer 2010, the program changed themes again to a summer-based theme.

Origins of other versions

A weekend version of the program, Buffalo Weekend, was created in February 2008, as a mixture of replays of the previous week's AM Buffalo segments and a few new features (including a community calendar). It initially aired at 9:00 AM before moving to 7:30 AM in January 2009; the half-hour program airs alongside the syndicated House Smarts with Lou Manfredini
Lou Manfredini
Lou Manfredini is an American television/radio personality and home improvement expert. Born in Highland Park, Illinois he is the host of House Smarts TV, Chicago's WGN Radio's Mr. Fix-It program and is a contributor on NBC's Today Show.-Early Years:While a student at Deerfield High School ,...

. It is, as of May 2009, off the air and infomercials are airing in its place.

An afternoon version of the show, called PM Buffalo, aired from 2004 until August 29, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. PM Buffalo was preceded in its time slot by a program called WNY Live!. Hosted by Linda White and later by Grace Polanski, WNY Live! had news updates at the top and bottom of each hour and several long form news features. WKBW's budget was cut in 2004 and WNY Live! was replaced by a PM version of the AM Buffalo program. In its last years, further budget cuts and a loss of advertisers reduced PM Buffalo largely to repeats of AM Buffalo's paid segments, and the program was no longer aired live. The program, by this point, was described as "deadly" to the station's ratings and because of this, WKBW ended PM Buffalo on August 29, 2008 and replaced it with the syndicated medical talk show The Doctors
The Doctors (2008 TV series)
The Doctors is an American syndicated talk show airing daily in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Sweden and Finland. It debuted on September 8, 2008. The hour-long daytime program is produced by Phil McGraw and his son Jay McGraw and is distributed domestically and globally by CBS Television...

, which the station has promoted aggressively.

Frequent guests

Most guest segments are sponsored. The most frequent guests include:
  • Herschel Gelber, personal injury attorney, legal consultant
  • Jeff Nixon
    Jeff Nixon
    Jeffry Allen Nixon is a former professional American football player for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. Born in Germany, Nixon spent his high school days in Virginia, attending Gar-Field Senior High School...

    , former member of the Buffalo Bills
    Buffalo Bills
    The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

  • Joseph Sgroi, financial consultant and guest
  • Darin Hughes, of Hughesco Inc., discusses home energy
  • Father Paul Seil, of Our Daily Bread, cooking segments
  • Amy Beth Taublieb, health and wellness
  • Sam Shatkin, cosmetic surgeon, "Great Look Mondays"

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK