Bangor TV’s Dick Stacey Came To Mind Today

“See these hands? They pump gas! And they STINK!”

Of course, Dick Stacey. And what a great ad-lib. Such a Mainer thing to say. Bet it made you smile.

No idea what made me think of Dick Stacey's Country Jamboree, but that is always a pleasant thought, right. And all these years later it is still amazing that the television show put together in Bangor Maine got national attention. Maybe because it was so real. So Maine.

Dick Stacey was born in Brewer and grew up mostly in Bangor. When he came of age he tried a few different jobs that didn’t work out before he ended up leasing a gas station in Brewer. He called it Stacey’s Fuel Mart.

WVII TV asked him to buy some commercials on the Country Jamboree show.

He agreed but only if he could sponsor the whole show. Bingo.

That 13-week trial became 10 years. From the early ’70s into the ’80s. Later in that time period, the show ended up being taped at the motel he bought on Wilson Street in Brewer.

After Dick gave up the show and the business, the motel was knocked down for the Rite Aid building to be built, and that is now the Plasma donation center.

But before the show ended, it got attention nationally.  Internationally, if you add that the show was very popular broadcast into Nova Scotia. Dick Stacey was asked to go on network television with Johnny Carson and David Letterman, which he declined, but he did do a segment on Good Morning America.

All good things come to an end, and the end was in 1984 simply because the cost of the sponsorship had gotten too expensive. The end of an era.

Let’s go back and spend a Saturday night with Dick Stacey Country Jamboree