Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409090067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLLINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
"I've been in the broadcasting business for 38 years and I've never seen anything like it," says Pete Bluhm, a board member of the company that owns Henry County's Channel 57. "Now I know how General Custer felt."
Bill Wyatt - the Channel 57 personality whose affair with a co-worker was disclosed by a competitor - stomped out of the station Tuesday night after he and his mistress quarreled on the air and his boss pulled the plug on the program.
Thursday evening, though, the competing station, Cable 6, broadcast live video of Wyatt picking up his mistress outside the Cable 6 studio.
Who knows what might happen next?
It's a story that has many television viewers glued to their screens, while others have thrown up their hands in disgust. Loathed or loved, it's bizarre.
So bizarre that Cable 6 owner Charles Roark laughed when asked if the two stations somehow cooked up the scheme to increase their market.
"Come on. There's no way anyone could make this up," said Roark, known for his appetite for the outlandish. "It's a great story, isn't it?"
Here's what happened Tuesday night:
Wyatt, who was hosting his regular nightly call-in show on Channel 57, decided to take a phone call from Ramona Hines, the woman with whom he had earlier admitted having an affair. Hines made the phone call while appearing as a guest on a Cable 6 call-in show.
After Wyatt took the call, Hines asked him to quit lying to the public and tell the truth about his feelings for her.
Channel 57 General Manager Pat Painter, who was watching the show, called and told employees to cut to a commercial and to have Wyatt call her.
Wyatt got up and left.
What started with one Henry County cable television station airing the dirty laundry of another has turned into a daily soap opera of personalities that's being sopped up by national tabloid shows and publications such as People magazine.
The story began when Cable 6 - the Collinsville-based television station known for its taste for the sensational - aired a July interview with Glen Hines, Ramona's husband. Glen Hines accused Wyatt of stealing his wife, who had just been promoted from a sales associate to an equipment operations manager at Channel 57.
Ramona Hines and Wyatt have publicly admitted the affair. Hines, after being fired by Channel 57, decided to give her side of the story to Cable 6. She's since become a frequent guest on the station's nightly call-in show.
Wyatt gave a wrenching on-air apology to his wife and children and to Channel 57's parent company, the Southern Broadcasting Corp., in early August.
Ramona Hines said Thursday afternoon that she had not spoken with Wyatt, but was told by one of his relatives that he was "in a depressed state."
After walking off the air Tuesday night, Wyatt drove to Cable 6 and confronted Hines, throwing his wedding ring at her, she said.
"I've still got it," Hines said.
Wyatt did not return phone calls Thursday.
Painter, Southern Broadcasting president, also could not be reached for comment.
Bluhm said Wyatt had not been heard from by anybody at the station since Tuesday night - although he was seen picking Hines up at Cable 6 Thursday evening.
Asked if it would matter to him if Wyatt returns to his job, Bluhm said no.
Wyatt has not been fired by the station and Bluhm said Southern Broadcasting executives are waiting for his next move.
"I'm not going to back out on the man," he said. "He's got some problems, and I'd like to see him get them cleared up."
What's next?
Roark said he wants Wyatt and Painter to do live interviews on Cable 6.
Roark, who suggested that the two Henry County stations may be better off by merging in the future, also left the door open when asked if he would consider hiring Wyatt if he leaves Channel 57.
"Anything's a possibility in this business," he said.
by CNB