Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 26, 1995 TAG: 9502270066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Viewers have given more than $32,000 to help the Cable 6 personality repay a bank loan, and a Cable 6 volunteer said donations were still flowing in Saturday afternoon.
The station set out Wednesday to raise $31,000 so Wyatt could repay a loan of that amount. Wyatt, who helped start rival station Channel 57 and was an on-air personality there, took out the loan three years ago to buy stock in Channel 57's holding company. Wyatt said the bank was calling in the loan, and neither he nor his 80-year-old father, his co-signer, could repay it.
Channel 57 fired Wyatt last year after Cable 6 went on the air to expose his affair with a female co-worker. The affair and the stations' rivalry were featured in the National Enquirer and on the Oprah Winfrey and Maury Povich TV talk shows. Cable 6 hired Wyatt last fall.
For a televised auction Friday night, Cable 6 viewers donated afghans, oil paintings, blankets, pillows and musical entertainment. ``Even I got up and did a little flatfooting,'' one volunteer said.
by CNB