the show from its start in October 1961 until June 1991. Shepardson died in June 2011 at the age of 76. John Baran (WWLP's station manager) took over that autumn when the show returned from its annual summer hiatus. Baran hosted from 1991 to 2006 and Chris Rohmann took over in January 2007 due to the show's switch to WGBY. The show's creator, Leonard Collamore, was the head question writer for 22 years, from 1961 to 1983. He was followed by Phil Shepardson from 1983 until his retirement in 1991. Except for the 1997-1998 season, Dr. Todd Rovelli has been the question writer from 1991 to the present. For many years, the show's theme music was Leroy Anderson's "Bugler's Holiday", performed by the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler's direction. (This information would occasionally appear in questions used on the show.) At least two different Boston Pops recordings were used on the air over the years: one dating from 1967, and another from 1969 that featured a guest performance by legendary trumpeter Al Hirt. The 1969 recording was dubbed off of a record owned by one of the station's engineers. In September 2000, "Bugler's Holiday" was replaced in favor of a generic-sounding, far less distinctive piece because of escalating music licensing fees. "Bugler's Holiday" returned as the show's theme in 2007, played against photos of random historical content and past episode clips. Ethan Lillie, an acclaimed concert pianist and jazz composer, composed an alternate version of the "Bugler's Holiday" theme, which was used in a November 2004 episode of ASMW to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Lillie's induction into the jazz hall of fame. The show was shot using the same light-blue-and-white set from 1982 until 2000, with trim and background changes added over the years. At one time, this set had also served as the anchor desk used on the air for WWLP's newscasts. The set used immediately prior to the light-blue-and-white set was orange, black and dark green in color. Through most of the 1970s and 1980s, a localized version of this series also aired in Dayton, Ohio on WKEF, which was owned at the time by WWLP's original owner, William Putnam. The Dayton version featured several different hosts during its run, one of whom was future conservative talk show host Mike Gallagher. Cancellation and revival In September 2006, WWLP cancelled the program after 45 seasons, citing the cost