I, too, BK, miss the local programming. The last two years of high school I probably did on five hours asleep at night, because I was up watching the late show movie that usually ran till one or one-thirty. But then I had to stay up for the sign-off and the HIGH FLIGHT poem.
My favourite local character (and Ginny and elmore might also remember him) was Bob Shreve, who hosted on the weekends, Schoenling All-Nite Theatre...Schoenling was a beer company. He was kind of a Soupy Sales character with a raft of silly characters and catch-phrases. The movies were always kind of tatty, so you waited for the commercial breaks where Bob would cut up and do his schtick. I think there is a website devoted to him. A legend in Cincy.
We also had a local talent show on either Saturday or Sunday afternoon hosted by Len Goorian who had started as a ballroom dancer, I believe, before he went into broadcasting. He still has a radio show on WMKV where he plays Latin music (apparently he worked a lot of cruise ships down South American way and has a collection of Latin Music).
Cincinnati was the home of Taft Broadcasting and a lot of local television was produced that also went out regionally. An icon was Ruth Lyons...who hosted a midday talk and variety show with a live band (my guitar teacher at Wurlitzer music used to occasionally play on her show), with a funny band director, and several singers (Bob Braun was one...who later had his own talk show...he may have taken over hers after she died...and had a record that once got him on American Bandstand). There is a book out now on Ruth called BEFORE OPRAH...and it's kind of true, she doing Oprah before Oprah. Tickets for the studio audience sold out months in advance and it was broadcast all over Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.
We also had a horror movie host, The Cool Ghoul.
http://poguespages.blogspot.com