TV Times Reader Comments on Bob Corcoran & Stu Martin
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From the Internet Archive, one of our Lost Comments—
RDvegas says:
May 21, 2017 6:40 am at
At the time that Stu Martim was appearing on Channel 3 Everett, he was operating a school of broadcasting. Each Saturday evening he would arrive at the Channel 3 studios with several broadcast students. They would operate the color cameras and/or present features about anything they had written for class. This was all included between portions of a movie or two that Stu would bring to the station.
One one Saturday evening I, who was the program director/board operator of the station, suggested that he give Bob Corcoran a call on the air. He liked the idea, so Stu hunched down next to a tv monitor and called Bob who was on the air on KTVW-13 Tacoma. The effect was a split screen with both Stu and Bob on the screen. Stu was in color, while Bob was in B&W. Stu bragged that he was on the air in Everett in color on a cable station, while Bob was only on in B&W on a under funded Tacoma broadcast station.
Prior to many Saturday evening broadcasts, Stu picked up the tab for dinner at a local restaurant in North Everett for the students and Channel 3 staff. This was a trade-out for ad time on Channel 3.
Rick Dodds
Las Vegas
What happened to Bob Corcoran?
Bob Corcoran was movie host and later a late-night talk-show host on KTVW, Channel 13. Turmoil was to be expected at Channel 13 in the ’60s and ’70s — the station was limited to showing scratchy black-and white movies and was near bankruptcy several times.
Corcoran faced the black-and-white camera unflinchingly for two hours or more, with no props, few guests and a lot of opinions. Some of his eventual guests included Ralph Williams, auto salesman, State Senator Martin Durkin and former governor Albert D. Rosellini.
“I was assembling a good package of movies,” Corcoran said at the time.. “I just took it easy until my movies could be added to the schedule.” He said he had TV rights to 182 movies. “Counter-programming, that’s what it is,” Corcoran said, “At 9 PM there is a carload of movies, so I’m going to talk. At 11 PM there are news programs galore, so I’m going to show my movies.”
He bought airtime and sold commercials for his movies himself. Corcoran frequently hawked items from the B&I, a circus-themed shopping center. Corcoran had earlier been involved in promotions for the B&I, including during the time of Ivan the Gorilla..
Later, Corcoran became a candidate for the state House of Representatives. His Democratic opponent, an incumbent candidate, asked for “equal time” to compensate for Corcoran’s saturation appearances. Corcoran turned the show over to his wife Lee, but instead of following a threat of “appearing as a guest on his wife’s program”, Corcoran purchased a different hour of political time each weekday. New TV station owners ended the program.in 1972. He didn’t go to the Legislature, but he did stay active in South Sound politics, he co-owned a radio station in Pierce County, and then joined the Archdiocese of Seattle as a foundation development officer. He retired from the archdiocese in 2000.
While working at Channel 13 Corcoran formed a production company which handled professional wrestling events and University of Puget Sound football games. He sometimes broadcast a radio sports program from the B&I. He died in 2014, age 83.