WKYC 50 years clip with a segment on Woodrow
Hello All:
I was looking through the Plain Dealer Archives, as I pretty much do every day trying to find articles, etc. of interest..As I did so today I fould a couple of outstanding articles on the late Lawson Deming, who was famed as Detroit's Sir Graves Ghastly from 1967-Late 1982..Before this, however, he had been at WTAM Radio and WNBK/KYW/WKYC Cleveland from 1947-66..His biggest fame in Cleveland was Woodrow's (Clay Conroy) assistant who provided voices for Woodrow's Puppet friends..Even before WNBK, he had been in radio since 1932..
What follows are two separate profiles in the Cleveland Plain Dealer..The first from January 29, 1965 in TV Week where James Flanagan discusses Deming's career to 1965..
The second article is from August 12, 1982..Columnist William Hickey catches up with Deming on his 50th anniversary in broadcasting..At the end of 1982 Sir Graves has begun to be preempted by Sports on WJBK-2 in Detroit..So the show wasnt officially canceled till 1983..Deming continued to make appearances as Sir Graves into the 1990's before passing away April 24, 2007..
During at least some of his years as Sir Graves Ghastly on WJBK-TV, Deming did do some announcing work at WJW/WJKW-TV, as some of Ray Glasser's ('videoholic') clips on YouTube attest (that is, in the mid-to-late 1970's period). To my ears, Deming's voice bore some resemblance to that of Pat Connell, a New York CBS staff announcer who, in 1961, was the first African-American to be so hired (thus preceding Fred Facey at NBC by some six years).
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