I believe it was sometime in the neighborhood of 1984, right after the FCC rescinded its policy banning program-length television commercials. That in turn led to the infomercial, and suddenly even small television stations could turn a better profit (or reduce their loses, at least) running the transmitter in the wee hours of the morning instead of shutting it off.
A dam lot of Keefe.
@biff_pow Yep – I found the YouTube a day or so after I posted this and completely forgot to add an edit! (Oops!) Thanks for correcting my error!
For some reason this puts me in mind of the time I happened to be watching CBC-9 out of Windsor – we could pick it up in Toledo sometimes by antenna – and they hit their signoff and of course played ‘God Save the Queen’ instead of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ and little me sat there a moment completely baffled until I remembered that Canada really is its own country.
As a kid growing up in Fargo I watched Madd Frank every weekend.
A rimshot is the only possible accompaniment!
Wait, wait - another Doctor Madblood person? So cool. He was the one I grew up with as a kid in Norfolk (now in Boston) growing up. And it still has a great place in my heart.
Nowadays I follow some non-local ones including Svengoolie and Marlena Midnite (and occasionally Count Gore & Mr Lobo.)
Very cool! And how could we not have our own horror host, given that we have the Witch of Pungo and Witchduck Road? 
So true. I kind of wish the whole early episodes were available. You can see the odd youtube clips of the earlier sketches and the more recent Halloween annual specials via PBS streaming but that’s it.
Agreed. I’d love to have a copy of the old episode where they did The Devil Bat and sort of MSTified it by adding captions.
And one other last “I wish” - in my off work (and occasional WFH) life, I wear a lot of horror host T-shirts. I have only one Doctor Madblood one that i got from their website years ago. Sadly that shirt is fading fast but alas I don’t see that they sell them anymore. So tragic!
Well I live in the northern Illinois area so I am blessed with the great and inspiring Svengoolie!
Here in Baltimore, Captain Chesapeake would double as the creature feature host for a few years, but stopped before I was old enough to get into it. Luckily we got the DC UHF station, WDCA20, where Richard (goes by a common nickname flagged by the board) Dyszel was Captain 20 by day, Gore De Vol by night! He now has a free Roku channel where he does a few movies a month, and I’ve met him at a bunch of conventions. Super nice guy.
We enjoy the great Svengoolie (Rich Koz) here in Saint Louie.
I watched almost all these shows growing up in the Cleveland area. Thanks for putting together such a great summary with the clips! 
I grew up in Bloomington and remember watching Sammy Terry on Channel 4 when I was a kid in the late 70s and early 80s (along with Cowboy Bob and Janie in the mornings). I wish I remembered him better because my memories are so dim, but I know we all loved watching him in the evenings and I’m sure it helped spurn my life-long love of terrible 1950s and 1960s sci-fi and horror.
It’s a newer entry, only starting in 2002, but when I was still living in SoCal I loved “Macabre Theater” on public KDOC. Ivonna Cadaver and (yes that) Butch Patrick.
I managed to snag some episodes from the mid to late '80s episodes. It’s fun to throw on The Valley Of Gwangi with Sammy hosting and commercials for IU hoops, Noble Roman’s pizza and Don’s Guns.
I loved my time in Bloomington.
Mr Dyszel is one of the reasons the Cinematic Titanic: The Alien Factor so much.