How did Dialing for Dollars work in your area?

[That Don Guy]

The recent resurrection of the obscure game shows thread, which turned into a local game shows thread, made me think about Dialing for Dollars. Yes, I am aware that a thread already exists for this, but it's 17 years old.

How common were the rules to Dialing for Dollars nationwide? I assume the base concept is the same: the local area phone books are cut up so that there are between 9 and 18 numbers on each side of each slip. The host draws out slips, then determines that day's "Count" - a number from 1 to 9, and either "Top" or "Bottom," indicating which numbers would be called. For example, "7 from the Top" means the 7th number from the top of the slip; I think you can work out what "3 from the Bottom" means. For those of you who asked, "Which side of the slip is used?", it's whichever one is facing the host at the time. A number would be called, and if the phone was answered, the host would ask for that day's "count and the amount" - that is, the count, and the amount of the jackpot; if correct, the contestant won the jackpot, but if not, it was increased for the next caller.

Here's how the one on KTVU (now San Francisco's Fox affiliate) worked:
Weekdays from 1 to 3; KTVU aired a movie in the time slot, with calls at the beginning, end, and at 30-minute intervals. It would be hard to do with normal TV shows, as cuts need to be made in order to fit the calls.
The jackpot started at $50 (later $100) and went up $10 for each miss.
There were consolation prizes, unless the number belonged to a business.
A busy signal was tried a second time; an unanswered phone was allowed to ring 13 times.
If there was a message that the number had been changed, the new number was dialed.
Near the end of the run, a postcard element was added; people sent in postcards with their names and phone numbers, and if a call had an incorrect guess or was a disconnected number, a postcard would be drawn and that number called.

[Ian Wallis]

The one from WKBW Buffalo worked almost the same way.  I remember the "count and amount" phrase very well.  It had an odd schedule though...

it came on at 8:55 AM and ran for one hour, 25 minutes, with a live studio audience.  At 10:20, they'd have 10 minutes of local news.

It was an ABC affiliate, and around the half-way mark in the show, they'd break for "about 35 minutes" to run the 4 PM ABC show that the station didn't clear live:  $10,000 Pyramid, then later on Money Maze, then later You Don't Say all on a one-week delay.  There was also a break for something called Fashions in Sewing, which I think ran around 5-10 minutes.

After You Don't Say was cancelled to make room for The Edge of Night, they dropped the game show segment and went to a straight one-hour format.  It was cancelled altogether sometime in '76.

[Jimmy Owen]

In my area (Saginaw,Mi) it was aired during a movie. As I recall, it was a rolling jackpot and home viewers had to identify a secret word they had revealed at the top of the show.  If they could not, more money was put in the jackpot.
My most vivid memory was on the last show, the host stepped away from the podium to reveal he wasn't wearing pants.

[alfonzos]

In Cleveland Ohio, not well. All I remember is that it was hosted by, staff announcer and cartoon show host, Ron Penfound. People screamed bloody murder when he gave a caller a second guess and she guessed the amount in the jackpot on the second try.

[carlisle96]

Dialing for Dollars originated in Baltimore in the late 1930s and was franchised across the country. Baltimore's most renown "Mr. Fortune" was staff announcer Stu Kerr