A bit of a backstory on Sailor Bob. (See earlier posts or lookup the Sailor Bob Fan Club group on Facebook.) 

The Sailor Bob Show began in the 60s when a studio floor director and a weatherman at WRVA TV (WWBT), Channel 12 in Richmond started a kid’s program of “cut ins” between Popeye cartoons on Saturday mornings. The pair wrote all the material, and the cut ins were pre-recorded earlier in the week. The show was aimed at kids but many of the ad libs were adult level. “Remember kids, when you write to Sailor Bob, Bob has only one ‘o’ in his name.” 

According to my wife, who was the assistant promotions manager at the time, the show received almost no promotion. Sales (the Sales Dept.) which dictated most station practices in those days, did not believe that kids bought anything and therefore no effort should be wasted on a kids’ show.  

Remember this was before some advertising genius realized that kids were one of the biggest purchasing influencers in a household. “Mommy. Mommy. Please buy me that tugboat that Sailor Bob was just talking about. Please, mommy, please. I will clean up my own room if you do.” 

A side note: When I was New Director at WAVY, Sales was always after us to cover the opening of a new Farm Fresh grocery store or some other business. They saw it as news. We saw it as placating an advertiser. Tony Burton, the News Director at WVEC at the time, told me the same was true at his station as well.  

Anyway, even with almost no promotion, The Sailor Bob Show became a huge success. And many WRVA staff members later joined the program as Bob’s cast of puppet characters grew. -dm