An Episode of "The Southern Sportsman"

By Brian Shrader

Posted: May 15, 2007
Updated: May 17, 2007

Get ready to shake loose some memories.

I blogged Friday about my quest to find (scarce) tapes of "The Southern Sportsman," a long-running show produced at WRAL-TV and aired here for years. The show's host and creator, Franc White, retired in 1996 and took the master tapes with him. Those tapes have decayed, so all that apparently remains are VHS copies from viewers' personal collections.

I was fortunate to find a nice fellow on a message board who had several tapes of "Southern Sportsman" episodes, recorded off WRAL-TV and SportSouth in the early 1990s. Here is one of those episodes. It was shot in 1992, but apparently aired in January 1993. I have encoded the entire show, except for commercials.

This was recorded off Channel 5 all the way from Liberty, NC, which is about 60 miles west of Raleigh. So, the quality is not great, but it gives you a sense of the show.

As I blogged Monday, I spoke with Franc, who gave us permission to put this clip on the Web. I should point out -- and I don't think he would mind me telling you -- that he has no copies of "Southern Sportsman" episodes. He'd like to have some for his kids. I'm making him copies of the episodes I have. If you have any (especially older ones) that you wouldn't mind loaning me and letting me copy, send me an e-mail.

Click to watch the video, then leave your comments below!

8 Comments

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I love this! My dad, two brothers and I used to watch this show every Sunday. We all loved to fish - my father's only hobby. He died 7 years ago. Watching this was like having him in the room again - awesome stuff! Hope you can publish more.

farleyfarleyfarleyhaffar
May 16, 2007 8:49 a.m.

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Cool - I think I still have some episodes on VHS so I'll look at the collection tonight.

I have my own media studio, can encode to DVD, so I can just send them to him.

davidgnews
May 16, 2007 8:42 a.m.

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Wow...that brought back a flood of memories. My Dad and I used to sit and watch that show every Sunday morning. He wasn't a fisherman, just liked his last name...we were White's too. Thanks for that long forgotten memory. Sandy

dawdawsmom
May 15, 2007 11:37 p.m.

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Thank you so much for this. Really enjoyed ''The Southern Sportsman '' and am glad to get the update. Remember his dogs --and the cooking segments--''House Autry'' !!! Fond TV watching .

WILLSGM
May 15, 2007 10:20 p.m.

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Wow...thanks Brian. Hopfully someone will send you one of the older shows ( late 70's early 80's ) to put up. Also...leave in the commercials if you can...they are fun to watch too. Someone put up a WRAL newscast on YouTube from 1977 and there was a commercial for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling at the Dorton Arena!! Funny stuff.

Sladea
May 15, 2007 6:52 p.m.

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I often wonder where he went or even if he was still alive. Loved the show.

G-man
May 15, 2007 6:15 p.m.

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I love that plane. Who has the plane now?

milky1
May 15, 2007 4:56 p.m.

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Thanks, Brian---wonderful memories of a great show.

And I guess I will stand corrected on the music---perhaps my memory is of those early days, when the show originated on WITN. That was our "good" station downeast--the "real" downeast in Carteret County---so I watched the show for many years.