I always remember the phrase being "the count and the amount".

It's forgotten now but Dialing for Dollars was actually a local talk and light entertainment show disguised as a game show. The game show element was actually a small portion of the airtime and when it was dropped entirely, the show became AM Buffalo which is still on the air today, though it's running time has been cut un recent years to half-an-hour. Dialing for Dollars, like a number of local television shows, was a franchised television format  which local stations would license and stage their own versions of. Other examples of local TV franchises were Bozo the Clown and Romper Room, Bowling for Dollars, It's Academic,  as well as the Eyewitness News format, and PM Magazine in the 1980s (which Global adapted as "That's Life" with Anne Rhomer and Peter Feniak). Improvements in telecommunications means that today it's much easier and cheaper for "live" and "live to tape" shows to be syndicated to local stations nationwide so local franchised shows have disappeared but it used to be a much more popular thing, especially when (if I'm not mistaken) FCC rules still mandated a certain amount of locally produced content as late as the early 80s before Reagan deregulated as much as he could across government. 

Dave Thomas hosted both Rocketship 7 and then, after a quick costume change, Dialing for Dollars which immediately followed it each morning. He was also one of WKBW's noon weatherman, and it's #2 weatherman behind the evening/nighttime Eyewitness News wealtherman Tom Jolls, who also hosted WKBW's afternoon kiddie show, Commander Tom. (Is anyone expected to host or co-host three TV shows a day in modern television?)

Here's a nice 2001 profile of Dave Thomas (who left in 1978 to become the weatherman for WPVI Philadelphia, where he changed his stage name to Dave Roberts), from when he was inducted into the Buffalo broadcast hall of fame. His real name is Dave Boreanaz (which is actually a northern Italian name of Slovenian origin)

Last edited by Hansa (November 14, 2021 1:50 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

Could be. It goes back a lot longer than my memory! But can you tell me what that meant? What was the count vs. the amount?

Yup.  It was "count and amount".

They would take the white pages out of the phone book and cut each column into little squares.  They would draw one of the squares from a large drum. 

The count would be random number from either the top or or the bottom of the square.  So if today's count was 3 from the top, they would call the third name from the top of the square. 

The amount was the amount of the jackpot, which would grow for each incorrect call until it was won.

The person called had to tell the host the count (which changed every day) and the amount.  (which changed every call)

With all that, I only remember Nolan Johannes as the host of the show. 

After D4D, Johannes went on to do news in P.A.  He passed away in 2020.

https://www.standardspeaker.com/news/former-wnep-anchor-johannes-dies/article_12380272-698f-5485-9016-26c9bd4ad130.amp.html

Peter the K wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

Could be. It goes back a lot longer than my memory! But can you tell me what that meant? What was the count vs. the amount?

Yup.  It was "count and amount".

They would take the white pages out of the phone book and cut each column into little squares.  They would draw one of the squares from a large drum. 

The count would be random number from either the top or or the bottom of the square.  So if today's count was 3 from the top, they would call the third name from the top of the square. 

The amount was the amount of the jackpot, which would grow for each incorrect call until it was won.

The person called had to tell the host the count (which changed every day) and the amount.  (which changed every call)

With all that, I only remember Nolan Johannes as the host of the show. 

After D4D, Johannes went on to do news in P.A.  He passed away in 2020.

https://www.standardspeaker.com/news/former-wnep-anchor-johannes-dies/article_12380272-698f-5485-9016-26c9bd4ad130.amp.html

Wow, thanks for that explanation. I have to admit I didn't watch the show much (school got in the way and it wasn't really aimed at my demo at the time) but I never knew that was how it worked. Of course, today there ARE no phone books, so I guess it really was a creature of its time.  

And come to think of it, not only is there no longer any phone book, but there are also no more "dials" on rotary phones - or rotary phones, for that matter. What would it be called today? Calling for Cash? Texting for Treasure?

Dialing For Dollars also aired on WROC Rochester [hosted by Anne Keefe] and WSYR [now WSTM] Syracuse hosted by Ed Murphy. A total of 86 stations carried a local version of the show.