Big Wilson at WCIX, Miami - 1978!!
Uploaded by videohollic. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.
Uploaded by videohollic. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.
This is an "encore" of a post I did September 10, 2008 on "Big" Wilson. The video on the original post had disappeared so I replaced it with a copy from dailymotion.com and just decided to redo it..
TV Guide Ad for the "Big" Wilson Movie..weekdays at 1:00PM on the "Big, Bright" KYW-TV 3-From 1960
I've mentioned many times in the past about "Big" Wilson, who worked at KYW-TV and Radio from roughly 1956-61. He was a busy fellow, doing a radio show in the morning, hosting a movie show on tv in the afternoon, and doing a weather forecast in the evening. He later spent many years in Miami, doing TV movie hosting on WCIX-TV 6..
Here from Videoholic, is several minutes of Big Wilson hosting "Nite Owl Theater" on Miami's Channel 6..along with some commercials..Wondering if anyone would know if he did his KYW-TV hosting in this way..sitting at a piano and just conversing..It would be absolutely amazing to say the least if anything like this was saved anywhere from his Cleveland days..
Don't know about Cleveland, but he was a pleasure in New York - yes, at the piano - in the 1960's. It was the beginning of the talk radio era. But it was a civil, engaging talk and call-in show, and he was the best.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I'm a Florida native that grew up on Channel 6 and raced go-carts at Grand Prix when they were still on 441. And I remember Big Wilson too!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 14 years old, my sister and I used to visit Big Wilson during his DJ show on KYW radio. His three hour program was on in the afternoon and later shifted to mornings as I recall. The studio was in the NBC building at Superior and East 9th downtown Cleveland. He was extremely kind to us, letting us hang out with him in the large radio studio. He sat at a grand piano and played, much as he did later on TV in Miami. He never played piano on TV in Cleveland to my knowledge. He hosted 6 o'clock adventure on KYW-TV each weeknight. They showed reruns of shows like Tarzan and Jungle Jim. It was around 1956/1957. His assistant/producer was a college student from Case University named Ira Apple, who Biggy used to say was rotten to the core. On 6 o'clock adventure, he had a chimp for a co-host for a while. They had a write-in contest to name the chimp. The winning name: "Howie Didit". Biggy was bigger than life to me during those impressionable years. I met him years later in Miami at a remote broadcast at the Miami boat show, and of course, he didn't remember me 40 years later. He was friendly, but preoccupied doing the broadcast. I tried to tell him how much he had meant to me and my sister 40 years ago, but I was a stranger to him, and it didn't register. He died rather suddenly just a year or two later. I'm thankful for his friendship and his kindness. If his wife, Jodie, should happen to read this, I wish her the best. Bing Stoll bstol@aol.com
ReplyDelete