Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995 TAG: 9502240076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLLINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Sitting beside the fried chicken and glazed doughnuts was a big, blue plastic jar full of money - $1s, $10s, $20s, $50s and $100s.
And standing beside the jar in the front office of the Cable 6 studios was its main recipient - Bill Wyatt, a television personality with the Henry County station.
Wyatt had a smile on his face, as well he should have.
Viewers responded to a station telethon for Wyatt and his 80-year-old retired father, Dan, by contributing more than $19,000 in cash and checks as of 5 p.m. Thursday, according to a Cable 6 count.
The goal for the telethon - which started at 4 p.m. Wednesday and was continuing into Thursday evening - is $31,000, the amount Wyatt was loaned by a Martinsville bank three years ago.
Dan Wyatt co-signed the loan, which Bill Wyatt used to buy stock in the Southern Broadcasting Corp.
Southern Broadcasting is the holding company of the television station Bill Wyatt founded and used to work for, Martinsville's Channel 57 - which just happens to be Cable 6's main competitor in Henry County.
Wyatt claims that Southern Broadcasting's board of directors is strangling his efforts to sell the stock and pay off the loan, which the bank now is calling in.
He said he and his father will be destroyed financially without help.
Southern Broadcasting's attorney, Wayland Hundley, said Wyatt's portrayal of the stock issue "has nothing to do with reality."
He said Wyatt was offered a settlement but wouldn't take it.
But the controversy over the loan and the stock isn't nearly as interesting as the results of the telethon.
Thursday morning there was a line of people out the door waiting to make a contribution to the cause. Wyatt's 11-year-old son, Danny, took the day off from school to do his part; he interviewed the contributors on the air as they filed out the door.
"There's plenty of people out here in the parking lot that are giving us money," Danny chirped. "They're saying they want Southern Broadcasting to fall to its knees."
Henry Countian Jackie Reynolds, who has been off work due to an injury for several months, showed up to contribute a $25 check.
"If I was done like Channel 57 did [Bill Wyatt], then I'd want the help, too," he said.
Reynolds, like a majority of the people who came to give money to the "Help Bill Fund," is a blue-collar worker over 50.
Another was Garfield Handy of Ridgeway, who gave a $20 check to Cable 6 on Wednesday, but showed up again Thursday to contribute a $100 check from his 79-year-old sister, who wasn't able to make the trip herself.
"Bill needs help," he said.
The donations came in nonmonetary forms as well. People brought fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, doughnuts and cinnamon rolls.
A craftsman brought a basket full of items to be sold on the air. He caught a cab to get to Cable 6.
"It's people against the establishment," said Cable 6 owner Charles Roark, who maintains that Channel 57 is operated by a handful of the most powerful people in Henry County.
Not all in Henry County, however, are gung-ho about the Cable 6 cause.
"I like to refer to [Cable 6] followers as a cult," said Larry Crotty of Collinsville, "because that's what they remind me of." Hundley, Channel 57's attorney, said, "I think, for the most part, people feel sorry for the people at Cable 6 because they're - how should I say this - taking the road less traveled."
But road less traveled or not, Cable 6 fans think enough to chip in when they believe their heroes are down.
One Martinsville couple contributed $1,000 to the "Help Bill Fund."
Bill Wyatt himself said the generosity of his viewers is "a little hard to believe."
Wyatt's name recognition in Henry County skyrocketed when the national media grabbed a story that Cable 6 broke: Wyatt's affair with a co-worker when he worked at Channel 57, and the shenanigans that followed. Wyatt soon was hired by Cable 6, where he is a reporter and news anchorman.
So yes, Wyatt is now reaping the "benefits" of working for the television station that threw his personal life in front of the nation.
Cable 6 - known for its aggressive and, at times, outrageous approach to the news - is now well-known outside its market.
Wat Hopkins, a professor who teaches media law and ethics at Virginia Tech, had this to say Thursday about the station's antics:
"It certainly doesn't add credibility to television. It's more like what you would see on a bad soap opera."
by CNB