Features: WFLA-TV "Hi-Time"

WFLA television had a major presence in the north Polk County area during the early and mid-sixties. As best I remember, if you could get your antenna turned in the right directions, you could pick up three stations: WFLA (channel 8 - Tampa), WTVT (channel 13 - Tampa) and on a good day, WDBO (channel 6 - Orlando). It seems there were some others but at that time, their signals were generally not strong enough in the Auburndale/Winter Haven area to watch comfortably.

Although Hi-Time was not physically part of North Polk County, as a part of WFLA's line-up, it had a major presence and considerable impact on the area's garage band scene. Almost all of the local bands played the show and many a job was booked because of those appearances. Therefore we are proud to include it as part of the Dizzy Rambler collection.

Hi-Time was a "live" American Bandstand styled teen dance show that aired on WFLA Television, channel 8, in Tampa, Florida during the sixties.

I have read that the show was at one time been entitled "Dance Party", but for all the time I personally had any dealings with it, it was called "Hi-Time". During that time period, the show was hosted by former booth announcer, Jack Stir. I used to watch him as "Major Jack" on the Saturday children's show of the same name. As a pre-teen (back in the late '50's), Major Jack and Coonskin Cal were two of the first TV shows I had ever seen. At that time, Daddy hadn't yet bought us a family television set, so I had to go next door to Uncle Sears' house and watch their TV.

Hi-Time was scheduled during the 4:30-5:30 time slot on Saturday afternoons and was an extremely popular part of the local teen scene. The studio audience was made up of students from featured central Florida area junior-high and high schools and there was never a shortage of schools clamoring for a chance to show off their latest dance moves on the television. The show was broadcast in black and white and segments would usually include: a performance by the school's cheerleading squad, interviews with student council members, dance contests, DJs hawking the best of the latest batch of "45" releases (those were vinyl 7" records, Virginia) and - "oh yes" - a featured local area rock & roll band — all presented very much live!

Hi-Time was directed by Jack Jarvis and produced by Jean Morris, who was also evidently responsible for scheduling the studio audience participants as well as the bands. I still have the letter sent me from her, confirming the appearance of The Dynamics, my band at the time, for the September 22nd, 1962 airing of Hi-Time (which by the way, would be the Dynamics last performance). Our lead singer, Billy Chambers, also had a new record and he was invited to lip-synch it on that show. Since the television studio had only a limited audience capacity, tickets were issued to the featured school and only that many were allowed admission. I also have one of those tickets. I'm not sure how I managed to hang on to it without turning it in, but then things like that happened when you were "with the band".

Our 1st TV

I have several recordings of the Dynamics, that were made by my dad when we would appear on the show. He had bought a stereo "Airline" reel-to-reel tape recorder from Montgomery Ward and I would alligator clip it to the speaker inside the family television console before I would leave for Tampa (about an hour drive). Unfortunately, the recordings had deteriorated somewhat by the time I finally copied them onto a more durable medium -- but most of them are still quite listenable.

I also have the same type of recordings of the "original" Starfires and of the Legends. The Legends was Gram Parsons and Jim Stafford's band back in the early '60's. One of the Dynamics recordings features pianist Bobby Braddock. Bobby would later gain legendary status as a country music songwriter and producer.

Thanks to the Honorable Charles Lee "Charlie" Brown (one of my cohorts in Ron & the Starfires), I now have several photos of the "original" Starfires taken on the Hi-Time set prior to one of the shows. They are not real high quality - but they are some of the only ones I've ever seen.