u/RAS310

Apparently, two different episodes (both reruns) were distributed to stations, depending on market and station owner. Most stations owned by Sinclair aired episode #S-8346 from Hawaiian Vacation week (originally aired 3/23/26, top picture), and most other stations aired episode #S-8311 from South of the Equator week (originally aired 2/2/26, bottom picture).

WABC-TV New York and ABC stations in the West Coast are not airing WOF tonight due to NBA Finals. KRQE 13 in Albuquerque, NM accidentally aired #S-8035 (originally aired 10/11/24) tonight, which was meant to be aired last Saturday, but this was likely an isolated error.

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For the past 25 years, we owned a Sony stereo with all the trimmings: cassette player, FM radio, 60 CD carousel, and RCA input. It had surround sound, so it could play on two sets of speakers (via speaker wire on clamps), and there were buttons on the front to switch between playing on just one pair of speakers or both pairs.

We had this stereo hooked up to one pair of speakers in the same room as the stereo, and another pair of speakers mounted to the outside of the house for playing in the backyard. We only ever used it for CD's for the longest time, until a few years ago when I bought a Bluetooth receiver and ran a 3.5mm to RCA cable from that to the stereo so we could also use the RCA function to play Bluetooth. We still have the manual and this appears to be the Sony MCH-MG110. Here is a picture of the back of it, with our two pairs of speaker wire connected. We do not have a center speaker or subwoofer.

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Recently, the CD carousel has stopped working, and we can't find any place that will repair it. My father is very attached to his CD's and I tried to explain to him that hardly anybody makes multi-CD players anymore, especially ones that store 60 at once. I told him most modern stereos will only play one CD if anything, and they often only output to one pair of speakers. He refuses to switch to a single CD player and he also refused my idea of getting an amp to hook up to a tablet to play his favorite albums off Spotify.

I did a lot of digging and could not find any modern multi-CD players with speaker wire output to more than one zone; most of them use 3.5mm or RCA out if anything. I have looked on eBay for stereos similar to our model, and the only functional ones I could find were ones that had just one pair of RCA out, and no input which meant no way to play Bluetooth through it. For newer stuff, I have found the Sharp CD-BH350, which has built-in Bluetooth and FM radio, and can store 5 CD's, but it has built in speakers and its only output is a 3.5mm headphone jack on the front.

As of now, the closest setup I can think of to support our two sets of speaker-wire speakers with a CD changer is to plug in a 3.5mm to female RCA adapter in front, run a pair of RCA to speaker wire cables to a 1-in/2-out switch with speaker wire clamps, and plug both sets of speakers into the switch so that we can turn one or both sets of speakers on or off. Here's a rough draft of how that would look: https://i.imgur.com/2AVCOvH.png

With this setup, everything would cost around $240; the Sharp alone is $200. I'm not too concerned about money but we could really use some advice on how to make a new setup for our speaker system that supports at least multiple CD's and Bluetooth. Recommendations for other subs that may also have tips for this are appreciated as well!

WABC 7 in New York will not be airing tonight’s episode. Instead, they will be airing pregame for the NBA Finals because the Knicks are in it. This may also be the case on Friday, the WOF season finale, for Game 2, but not confirmed yet.

There is a rapidly growing trend in broadcasting where local TV stations are quick to drop Wheel of Fortune for a day (rarely Jeopardy! or other shows) for an opportunity to hype a local sports team. Just yesterday, WTVD 11, the ABC in Raleigh, NC, dumped WOF for a pregame special for the Stanley Cup Final because the Carolina Hurricanes are in it. And during the NBA Playoffs, when the Detroit Pistons made it in, WDIV 4 aired a pregame special in Jeopardy!’s time slot and moved Jeopardy! to replace WOF for that day. Stations with WOF may be losing revenue from linear viewing since the show is streaming now.

West Coast ABC markets are also mostly unable to watch WOF on TV for the rest of this week due to ABC alternating the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals most days. Although most stations schedule WOF shortly after the games, it comes with the risk of the show not airing if the games run too long.

However, in addition to the usual next-day streaming, this whole week of episodes is rerunning in four weeks, from June 29-July 3, so there will be another opportunity to catch tonight’s episode pretty soon.

Last week marked the end of the “Spring Forward” period with returning champions. Now that we’ve been back to the usual format for a week, what are your thoughts? Would you want them to do champions again, and if so, what would you change if anything?

Returning champions was something many longtime fans of the show were hoping they’d bring back someday. The Friday Finals tournaments being brought back a few years ago was well received, though last month’s comeback of returning champions has had some mixed reception on social media.

I gave my thoughts on last week’s Come On Big Money podcast. While I do like the idea of champions, I would change two things about it. One: Randomize the champion’s podium instead of always putting them at red, like they used to. Two: While I don’t mind no limit to the number of days, I’d retire champions who lose the Bonus Round too many times. If there is a requirement to win the Bonus Round, we’d never see a long streak going, considering only one tournament winner to date was able to win two Bonus Rounds (Jill from the NFL Tournament).

I looked up stats, and for the 1989-90 season, the first season that had all champions, 20 champs were able to win three games, and all but four of them won at least 2 out of 3 Bonus Rounds. It was depressing seeing Chad fail at the Bonus Round so much and even the one time he did win, it was just barely. He should have easily broken $200K and possibly even $300K. The point of returning champions is to keep showcasing people who can ace the game. I would have a “three strikes” rule for champs, in that if they lose the Bonus Round three times in a row, they’re done and three new players play the next day. This would not have made a difference for Chad, though it would have if he won his fifth game and lost the Bonus Round again. So a champ could still go on a long streak with a pattern of LLWLLWLL, etc.

Another thing I’d change is give the champs a maximum of three trips, which will pile up since whoever goes to the Bonus Round has almost always won a trip. After they’re done, they get to choose the top three trips they want, and the rest they get the cash value for. Chad stated he only has one year to take all six of the trips he won and will have to turn some of them down.

Curious what you all think, now that we’ve had a week to reflect. 

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