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Philadelphia Legend Charlie O'Donnell Bandstand/Wheel of Fortune Announcer

Q

qtpieislit

I am so sad to see the passing of a dear family friend, Charlie O'Donnell.

Sam Lit Charlie O'Donnell Interview 2008  http://hylitradio.com/charlieodonnell Charlie talks about Philadelphia radio, Bandstand, Dick Clark, career.

Charlie began his carrier in Philadelphia radio in the 50s. As program director of 1340/WHAT in 1954 he discovered a young talent named Hy Lit.


Excerpt from Hy Lit History http://www.hylitradio.com/index.php?page=6

1954 - Life Could Be a Dream, Sh-Boom.
On a visit home for the holidays, I found myself in a basketball game in the gymnasium at West Philly High. It was the ‘Philadelphia Players’ against an assembled ‘radio industry' ball team. During that game Charlie O’Donnell (currently the announcer of Wheel of Fortune) fouled me with a slap, and remarked, excuse me. Later down court, when I returned the abrupt foul and promptly replied, "Ex-cuuuse Me", Charlie commented by saying “Hey, that’s quite a voice you have!". Subsequently after the game, we struck up a conversation. While ascertaining my status as a communications major at Miami University, Charlie indicated that he was the program director for 1340/WHAT, a rhythm and blues soul station, and that he had a time slot to fill Saturday morning. Would I be interested? Before I knew it the next day I was at the microphone.
 
Charlie also worked on radio, jocking at KRLA during the KHJ-KFWB-KRLA battle in Los Angeles; and later did AM Drive at WOR-FM whrn that station was an oldies-driven Top 40 under Bill Drake.
 
Does anybody else here remember when Charlie used to be a "sprocket jockey" locally on what was then WFIL-TV, introducing full-length feature films -- mostly B-movies -- and even doing a few live commercials, overnights back in the late Fifties? He was doing that while serving as the (occasionally on-screen) announcer on Bandstand, including the network segments, during the afternoon.

I don't know how he survived that schedule!
 
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