WKBW-TV (Channel 7) feature reporter Mike Randall’s three-year plan to stay at Eyewitness News is going to end on Aug. 24 after he reaches the 40-year milestone next month.
Randall, who replaced two Channel 7 legends – feature reporter Don Polec and weatherman Tom Jolls – became one in the process. He is a member of the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
He announced his retirement from television news Tuesday, effective Aug. 24.
“When I started working there in 1983, I never thought that I would make it three years, let alone 40 years,” Randall wrote in a text. “It’s been a great ride. I’m going to be 70 years old and 40 years on the job. That adds up to 110 years. And not that good at math.”
He added that his contract is up and said the station asked him what he wanted to do.
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“I was going to retire two years ago, and then decided to roll the dice for another two years,” Randall said.
Randall, who survived kidney cancer almost three years ago, has simple plans for retirement.
“It’s been a whirlwind year,” he said. “My oldest son got married. We have two grandchildren and another on the way. It’s time to slow down and enjoy life. Plus I have older siblings spread around the country and I want to catch up with them.”
He had been working three days a week the last few years, “finding, shooting, writing and editing features.”
Over his career, Randall has filled in on ABC’s “Good Morning, America,” met such stars as Dick Clark, John Candy, Rosie O’Donnell and Steve Allen and sang like Robert Goulet to Robert Goulet on “AM/Buffalo.” He also briefly revised “Rocketship 7,” appearing with his wife and the youngest of his three sons.
He is the longest-tenured on-air personality in the station’s history and has been at one local station longer than any on-air reporter here. Randall and WIVB-TV (Channel 4) anchor Jacquie Walker both arrived here in 1983.
Randall said photojournalist Lou Chilelli is the only person remaining in Channel 7’s building since he was hired.
Randall’s audition tape to replace Polec featured an Irv Weinstein cameo and answered the question “how to apply for a job at Eyewitness News.”
Randall didn’t plan to become a broadcaster. The Kenmore West High School graduate attended four colleges without earning an undergraduate degree. He became an actor. He performed six or seven nights a week at dinner theaters across the country – doing a Mark Twain act that he still does in Buffalo, and other roles. He also would go to local TV stations to see if he could do any commercials to augment the $100-$125 a week he would get for performing and being a waiter.
His broadcasting career started as a host of the syndicated program “PM Magazine” in Roanoke, Va., where he met his wife Kathy, who was the morning anchor.
He was in Roanoke for 18 months before getting the same role in Hartford, Conn. He was miserable there and he and his wife quit their TV jobs.
When an agent called Kathy, she told him that she wasn’t interested in a job, but her husband was.
Randall wanted to go to Buffalo, which surprised the agent. Randall told him he grew up here, had family here and he might go someplace else in a few years.
The agent, Ken Lindner, who became one of the prominent agents in the business, got Channel 7’s news director to look at Randall’s resume tape, which led to the “How to Apply” audition tape and Randall’s hiring.
He remained a feature reporter until 1989, when the weekend weather personality quit. Randall, who had filled in on the noon weather, replaced her.
Mike Randall is about to celebrate his 50th anniversary of being Mark Twain, which means he has been “Mark Twain” even longer than Mark Twain was Mark Twain
He became co-host of Channel 7’s first morning show in 1989, being told by a former news director his humor was going to make him “the David Letterman of mornings.”
When he was told the newscast would start at 6:30 a.m., Randall replied: “Are you kidding me? Who is going to watch a show at 6:30?”
He did features and weather until 1999, when Jolls retired. Jolls previously had suggested Randall do weather. Randall eventually got two meteorology seals after taking weather courses for years.
When he went to a four-day work week about 15 years ago, he told people he was “rehearsing for retirement.”
The rehearsal ends Aug. 24, when Channel 7 undoubtedly will have a big send-off.