“Saturday Session” host a friend to teens

We here at Retroroanoke.com like to remember when most television was locally produced and not the same syndicated off-network show you can catch on stations across the country.
One such show was WDBJ’s answer to American Bandstand, “Saturday Session.”

Hosted by former radio announcer turned television host, Dudley Townsend, the first reference in print to Saturday Session was in the Roanoke Times TV listings for April 28, 1956.

According to a later article in the Times, the show usually aired live at 1:00 pm on Saturdays, except when it was taped to air later in the day when a sports event would take its normal spot.

Del Shook was credited with creating and producing Saturday Session. He said in 1959 that ratings showed it even had a good audience among adults in addition to its target audience of teenagers.

One article said about 100 students crammed into the studios to dance and take part in contests at WDBJ.  At first, it was in the Roanoke Times building.  In 1961, it moved to WDBJ’s new Colonial Avenue facility.

Despite the crowd, the teens were reportedly well-behaved. The fact that schools were invited to attend and typically sent their best and brightest probably had something to do with that.

Those same students addressed topics of the day on the show.  Their essays were later published in The Roanoke Times’ Teen-Talk section.

There was even a dress code.  One article in 1962 said, “Dress for the show must be neat. Boys are required to wear sports jackets and shirts must have the top button fastened. Girls must wear skirts or dresses. No jeans or Bermuda (shorts) are allowed.”

Producers selected the records that were played on the show.  Most of the songs were from the Top 10 or 20 playlists of the day, but at least one listing in July of 1956 listed “a square-dance feature.”

As the show became more and more popular, record stores in the region would arrange special sales for the songs featured on the show.

For the next several years, the show went on largely unchanged.  It was an institution for Roanoke airwaves.

It proved popular with advertisers too.  
Dr Pepper, Wise Potato Chips, and James River Barbecue were known to sponsor the program.

But like most of America, things began to change as the 1960s progressed.  Styles of dress and music changed and that was often reflected on-the-air.

In 1965, teen writer, Anita Tinsley, wrote in the Roanoke Times, “Townsend said he wouldn’t pretend to judge the dancing of teens. The dancing of today is much different from that of long ago. Smoothness and gracefulness characterized the dancing of past years. Not today.  Teenagers try to see who can out “jerk” or “fuzz” each other.”

Things that were once considered cool and fun, gave way to the rebellious and new.
It’s not known what went into the decision to cancel Saturday Session.  It is not documented.  It normally took a break in the Summer, because when school was out, it was harder to get students to come out.

When it came time for its return in the Fall, it didn’t.   There was no announcement or a farewell show.  It just didn’t come back.

The last time Saturday Session appeared in the television listings was May 22, 1971.  The next reference came in the Roanoke Times on January 1, 1972.  Someone sent a question to the newspaper’s Quickline section:
Q: What has happened to Saturday Session that comes on Saturday afternoons?
A:  The Ch. 7 series has been off the air for about a year and a half.

Dudley Townsend retired from WDBJ in 1981.  He died at the age of 90 in Richmond on December 12, 2007.   He lived a long life and is still remembered as a friend of the teenagers of the Roanoke Valley in the fifties and sixties.

Anita Tinsley shared this thought about Townsend in 1965: “Townsend, the father of three teenagers, said that he enjoys working with teenagers and the only thing he has against them is the fact that he is not one of them himself.”