The Phil Donahue Show

Information about The Phil Donahue Show

The Phil Donahue Show /
Donahue
StarringPhil Donahue
Country of origin United States
Production
Running time60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channelfirst-run syndication
Original runJanuary 5, 1970May 2, 1996
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary


The Phil Donahue Show, also known as Donahue, was the first tabloid talk show. The show had a 26-year run on national (U.S.) TV, preceded by three years of local broadcast in Dayton, Ohio, before ending in 1996.

1960s and 1970s

In 1967, Donahue left the WHIO stations and moved his talk program to television with The Phil Donahue Show on WLWD (now WDTN), also in Dayton. Initially, the program was shown only on other stations owned by the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation (which would later take the name of its parent Avco Company), which also owned WLWD. But, in January 1970, The Phil Donahue Show entered nationwide syndication.

Donahue relocated the show's home base to Chicago in 1974, first housing it at independent station WGN-TV. Around this time the show's popularity increased, and in the process it became a national phenomenon. When the Avco Company divested their broadcasting properties in 1976, Multimedia Inc. assumed production and syndication of the program, which was now known as simply Donahue.

1980s

In 1982, Donahue moved the show to CBS-owned WBBM-TV for its final years based in Chicago and the Midwest.

In 1984, Donahue introduced many viewers to hip-hop culture for the first time, as a program featured breakdancing for the first time on national television, accompanied by a performance from the rap group UTFO. [1]

In 1985, Donahue moved the program's operations to New York City, housing them in NBC's Rockefeller Plaza building at WNBC. Prior to the move, NBC's late-night talk host David Letterman would use portions of his national program counting down the days to Donahue's move with a huge calendar in his studio.

One of the most talked-about incidents in Donahue's history came on January 21, 1985, soon after the show moved to New York. On this day's program, seven members of the audience appeared to faint during the broadcast, which was seen live in New York. Donahue, fearing the fainting was caused by both anxiety at being on television and an overheated studio, eventually cleared the studio of audience members and then resumed the show. It turned out the fainting "spell" was cooked up by media hoaxer Alan Abel in what Abel said was a protest against what he termed as poor-quality television.

1990s

In 1992, Donahue celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his local and national program with a special produced at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, in which he was lauded by his talk-show peers. Ironically, in many corners, he was seen as having been bypassed both by Oprah Winfrey, whose own hugely successful national show was based in Donahue's former Chicago home base; and Sally Jessy Raphael, whose own talk show was distributed by Donahue's syndicator, Multimedia.

The end of Donahue

As the 1990s progressed, the talk show field (now labeled as "tabloid" or "trash" talk) became saturated, and eventually Donahue and his program became a victim. Ratings steadily declined, leading one station, KGO-TV in San Francisco, to drop the program at the start of the 1995-1996 season. Weeks later, New York's WNBC-TV, whose studios housed the program, also cancelled it. Donahue was also evicted from its Rockefeller Plaza home, and relocated to new studios in Manhattan. Other stations, such as KTRK-TV in Houston, moved Donahue to a late-night time slot. Unfortunately, the program did not relocate to another station in either New York or San Francisco, two of the largest television markets. Donahue ended the series after 29 years, 26 of them in syndication. The final original episode of Donahue aired in May 1996, culminating what remains the longest continuous run of any syndicated talk show in U.S. television history.

As a result of several acquisitions and mergers since 1996, the Donahue show catalog is now the property of NBC Universal Television.

References

1. ^ [1]
Phillip John Donahue (born December 21, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American media personality and writer, best known as the creator and star of The Phil Donahue Show, also known as Donahue, the first tabloid talk show. The show had a 26-year run on national (U.
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network.
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January 5 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1463 - Poet François Villon is banned from Paris.

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-1970- 1971 1972 1973  1974 .  1975 .  1976 .  1977  . 1978  . 1979  . 1980 

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May 2 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.

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-1996- 1997 1998 1999  2000 .  2001 .  2002 .  2003  . 2004  . 2005  . 2006 

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Tabloid talk shows are a genre of American television talk-shows that achieved peak viewership during the late 20th century, ran mostly during the day, and were distributed mostly through syndication.
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City of Dayton
City |

Downtown Dayton



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-1996- 1997 1998 1999  2000 .  2001 .  2002 .  2003  . 2004  . 2005  . 2006 

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-1967- 1968 1969 1970  1971 .  1972 .  1973 .  1974  . 1975  . 1976  . 1977 

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WHIO can refer to:
  • WHIO-TV, a television station on channel 7 in Dayton, Ohio
  • WHIO (AM), an AM radio station operating at 1290 kHz and located in Dayton, Ohio
  • WHIO-FM, an FM radio station operating at 95.7 kHz located in Piqua, Ohio

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WDTN (channel 2) is a television station in Dayton, Ohio affiliated with the NBC network since August 30, 2004.

Station Overview

The station was previously an ABC affiliate from 1980 until the network switch to NBC in 2004.
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Crosley Broadcasting Corporation, founded by radio manufacturing pioneer Powel Crosley, Jr., was an early operator of radio stations in the United States. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Crosley's flagship station was WLW (AM).
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For the record label, see Avco Records
Avco Corporation is a subsidiary of Textron which operates Textron Systems Corporation and Lycoming.
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-1970- 1971 1972 1973  1974 .  1975 .  1976 .  1977  . 1978  . 1979  . 1980 

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In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network.
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City of Chicago

Flag
Seal
Nickname: "The Windy City", "The Second City", "ChiTown", "Hog Butcher for the World", "City of the Big Shoulders", "The City That Works"
Motto: "Urbs in Horto
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-1974- 1975 1976 1977  1978 .  1979 .  1980 .  1981  . 1982  . 1983  . 1984 
In home video: 1971 1972 1973 -1974- 1975 1976 1977     
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Independent station is a term for a broadcast radio or television station which is more independent in some way compared to other "dependent" stations. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market environment and the
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WGN-TV, channel 9, is a television station in Chicago, Illinois. It has been owned by the Tribune Company since its inception, and is currently the Chicago affiliate of The CW Television Network.
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-1976- 1977 1978 1979  1980 .  1981 .  1982 .  1983  . 1984  . 1985  . 1986 
In home video: 1973 1974 1975 -1976- 1977 1978 1979     
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Multimedia, Inc. is a now-defunct media company that owned 10 daily newspapers, three weekly newspapers, two radio stations, five television stations, and a cable television system division which was then sold to Cox Communications in 2000.
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-1982- 1983 1984 1985  1986 .  1987 .  1988 .  1989  . 1990  . 1991  . 1992 

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CBS Broadcasting, Inc. (CBS)

Type Broadcast radio network and
television network
Country  United States
Availability    National; also available in  Canada,  Mexico, and the Caribbean
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WBBM-TV, officially branded as CBS2 Chicago, is an American television station in Chicago, Illinois owned and operated by CBS. Currently broadcasting from 630 North McClurg Court in downtown Chicago near The Loop, WBBM-TV transmits from the John Hancock Center.
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-1984- 1985 1986 1987  1988 .  1989 .  1990 .  1991  . 1992  . 1993  . 1994 

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Hip hop is a subculture, which is said to have begun with the work of DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, and Afrika Bambaattaa.

The four main aspects, or "elements", of hip hop culture are MCing (rapping), DJing, urban inspired art/tagging (graffiti), and
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Breakdance, breaking, b-boying or b-girling is a street dance style that evolved as part of the hip hop movement among African American and Puerto Rican youths in the South Bronx of New York City during the early 1970s.
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UTFO (which stands for Untouchable Force Organization) was a old school hip-hop group from the 1980s founded by R&B band, Full Force. The group consisted of the Kangol Kid, the Educated Rapper (also known as ("E.M.D."), Doctor Ice and Mix Master Ice.
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