Mike Whorf
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Mike Whorf (b. April 21, 1932) is one of Detroit, Michigan's best-known radio talents. He was an announcer and program host on WJR from 1964 to 2003. WJR's clear-channel signal broadcast Whorf's rich baritone voice to listeners throughout the Midwest and Canada. He is familiar to many listeners through the George Foster Peabody Award-winning documentary/narrative program “Kaleidoscope”, a blend of storytelling, interview, historic recordings and music on a particular topic.
[edit] Early years and family history
Whorf was born in Brookline, Massachusetts and spent his childhood and teen years in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the bustling fishing village and art colony at the tip of Cape Cod. His father was professional watercolorist John Whorf. His mother was Vivienne Ward Wing. Whorf's sisters Carol Whorf Westcott and Nancy Whorf are also noted Provincetown artists. He is the father of Peter Whorf who has served as a program director at WNYC-FM, New York, NY, KBIA-FM, Columbia, Missouri (University of Missouri-Columbia) and WFMT-FM, Chicago, Illinois. Whorf is the grandson of commercial artist Harry Whorf, nephew of linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf and nephew of MGM and Warner Brothers actor and television director Richard Whorf.
Whorf graduated from Provincetown High School in 1950. Upon graduation, Whorf enlisted in the United States Air Force where he served as a radio announcer and entertainer on the Armed Forces Network. His tour of duty included assignments at air bases in California, Texas and Morocco.
[edit] Professional history
After his honorable discharge from the USAF, Whorf worked as an announcer at WOCB in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts and at WCOJ in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, where he met and married his wife of 49 years, Barbara Ann Brown Whorf (b. January 26, 1936, d. October 7, 2006) of Reading, Pennsylvania, a registered nurse and graduate of the Coatesville School of Nursing. He later developed the Kaleidoscope predecessor, "Tempo" while on the air at WTAG in Worcester, Massachusetts. Whorf put in a brief stint at powerhouse WLW in New Orleans, Louisiana before returning to WTAG. Shortly after, he went on to WJR.
Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, Whorf was part of a line-up of popular radio personalities known throughout the region including J.P.McCarthy, Karl Haas, Jimmy Launce and MLB Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell. "Kaleidoscope" was a fixture in WJR's Monday-Friday 11am timeslot, remaining one of WJR's most listened-to programs. Kaleidoscope topics ranged from religion to politics, from the arts to sports. Some of Whorf's extended series included oral histories of Native American tribes and a collection of personal interviews with many popular American song composers of the 1920s and 1930s entitled "The Bards of Tinpan Alley".
Whorf is himself a published composer. His Christmas song "The Man with A Hundred Names" muses on the many names by which Santa Claus is known worldwide.
In 1970, Whorf formed the company Mike Whorf Inc. which enabled many schools, libraries and individuals to purchase cassette tape copies of Kaleidoscope programs for personal and educational use. In the late 1970s and 1980s, he partnered with nephew, author and retired United States Marine Corps Captain Charles "Charlie" T. Westcott III (aka C.T.Westcott) on numerous radio dramas and comedies that were featured during the Kaleidoscope hour, including the old-time radio parodies “Big Jim Small” and “Another Man’s Family”.
Whorf briefly parted from WJR from 1983-84 to serve as program director of classical station WQRS-FM, Detroit, Michigan . While with WQRS, Whorf created the program “Quest for Excellence”, a juried music competition show for young talent broadcast live before a studio audience. Whorf later brought that program to CKLW, Windsor, Ontario and took it with him upon his return to WJR.
Whorf's programs were also broadcast by WVXU-FM, the National Public Radio affiliate station of Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In addition to his Peabody-winning work on topics including the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Whorf also received multiple broadcasting awards from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge and the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.
Whorf remains active in the Detroit area as an independent radio writer, host, producer, voice-over talent and audio archivist.
