September 1971 at 6:30 p.m. nightly, Star Trek quickly became channel 61's highest-rated program, so much so that a private celebration marking WKBF-TV's fifth birthday was headlined by DeForest Kelley. On May 26, 1972, Kaiser Broadcasting and Field Communications, owner of WFLD-TV in Chicago, announced a transaction that had Field purchasing a 22.5 percent minority stake in the entire Kaiser station group (excluding KBSC-TV, which was to be divested); in turn, Kaiser purchased a 77.5 percent majority stake in WFLD-TV. Kaiser then executed the option to purchase the remainder of WKBF-TV from Superior Broadcasting, which the FCC approved on August 14, 1972. The Kaiser–Field deal was completed in early May 1973. The Ghoul Even with the station's heavy emphasis on local programming in its first two years, WKBF-TV's most popular program debuted in 1971, after the majority of local output had been curtailed: Creature Features with The Ghoul. Ron Sweed originated the character as a spiritual successor to Ghoulardi, a horror host character created by Ernie Anderson at WJW-TV. At the age of 13, Sweed wore a gorilla suit to a promotional appearance for Ghoulardi, a stunt that led Sweed to be invited on stage by Anderson, eventually becoming his gofer. After Anderson left WJW-TV for work in Los Angeles, Sweed helped with succeeding show Hoolihan and Big Chuck then was granted permission by Anderson to portray the Ghoulardi character, but only under a different name. Only 21 years old when WKBF-TV debuted Creature Features, Sweed oriented The Ghoul to focus on explosions, slapstick and lowbrow humor, a marked departure from Ghoulardi's cerebral-driven beatnik persona. Sweed was occasionally criticized for being a poor imitation of horror hosts that preceded him, while one newspaper review called the show "one long Polish joke interrupted by a boring monster movie". The Ghoul generated enough of a cult following to the point Kaiser syndicated the show to WKBD-TV in 1972, then KBHK-TV and WKBG-TV. While the program proved very popular in Cleveland and Detroit, it met with mixed results in San Francisco and Boston. WFLD-TV also picked up the program in late 1973, but it came at the expense of that station's existing horror host, Svengoolie (Jerry G. Bishop). Kaiser cancelled The Ghoul in the spring of 1975 due to being "economically unfeasible"; WKBF-TV and WKBD-TV were the only two remaining Kaiser stations carrying the show. WKBD-TV revived the program in August 1975, while