A bowling show with a long history in the Buffalo, N.Y. area, is spending some time in Bradford.
“Beat the Champ,” which has a current home at WBBZ-TV, is taping its bowling competition this Saturday at Byllye Lanes, with bowlers from across the region rolling games for the weekly viewers.
A “Beat the Champ” Top 24 Roll-Off competition took place Sunday in Bradford to narrow down the competition.
Paul Geiger, who owns Byllye Lanes with wife Jacquie, explained the bowling alley has been hosting qualifiers to narrow down which bowlers would appear on the show. The top 24 competed on Sunday, and the top nine will compete Saturday for the taping of the show.
Altogether, there were 97 entrants who took part over over the past three weeks, said Chris Musial from WBBZ-TV out of Buffalo, N.Y.
“It’s a nice mix of folks from here in the Bradford/Salamanca (N.Y.) area, and some Buffalo (N.Y.) folks who came down,” said Musial.
Qualifiers are Jeremy Cressley, who rolled a 770 series; Stephanie Tompkins, 752; Brandon Miller, 728; Andy Rettig, 720; Rob Ticcoli, 717; Shawn Mosier, 712; Dan Gould, 697; Tim Montouri, 696; and Chuck Jagodzinski, 690.
The alternate is Blake Geiger, who also had a 690, tying with Jagodzinski. Musial said Jagodzinski and Geiger rolled an extra game to see who would make the television show.
Starting at 10 a.m. this Saturday and lasting into the afternoon, the public is invited to stop by Byllye Lanes and see the show being filmed.
There will still be open bowling on Saturday, too, Musial noted.
According to Musial, the show tapes four shows each year at 13 different bowling alleys, making an episode for every week of the year. The first three episodes show a traditional adults bowling competition, and the fourth is a special episode of the bowling alley proprietor’s choice: for example, senior citizen and vision-impaired bowlers have been featured.
At Byllye Lanes, Musial said Paul Geiger wanted to highlight youth bowling.
The show’s normal scorekeeper will be out Saturday, so members of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford women’s Panther bowling team will be guest scorekeepers.
The show is hosted by Paul Peck, who worked in the Channel 4 sports department for nearly 30 years, and Sue Nawojski, a Hall of Fame bowler and Western New York native.
“They guide us through the intricacies and strategies of bowling every week,” said Musial.
“We’re having a lot of fun getting into so many communities across Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania,” said Musial, who enjoys getting to know the people he’s met along the way.
Visiting Bradford has been no different.
“It’s been a really, really good experience for us,” Musial said.
He noted that in addition to seeing Byllye Lanes, his crew visited Pitt-Bradford. He got a kick out of one woman at the bowling alley who grabbed his arm and whispered in his ear about one of the bowlers from the show, which she watches every week.
“He’s really good,” she whispered.
“Beat the Champ” has a long history in Buffalo, according to Musial.
He explained the weekly bowling competition aired on Channel 4 — where he used to work — for 30 to 35 years. WBBZ-TV “decided to go with our gut” and revived it.
“Three years ago we decided to bring the iconic “Beat the Champ” bowling show back on TV,” he said, explaining that, as a smaller television station, WBBZ-TV had more flexibility to offer the programming.
The first show featuring Byllye Lanes will air at 4 p.m. Nov. 10 and 11 p.m. Nov. 11. The second will air Nov. 17 and 18; the third, Nov. 24 and 25; and the fourth — featuring the youth bowlers, Dec. 1 and 2.
WBBZ-TV appears on Channel 67 on DirecTV and on Channel 5 in some surrounding communities.
