Mike Whorf
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
 |
The quality of this article or section may be compromised by wording which promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. You can help Wikipedia by removing peacock terms or finding content which backs the claims. |
 |
Mike Whorf (b. April 21, 1932) is one of Detroit, Michigan's best-known radio personalities. He was an announcer and program host on WJR from 1964 to 2003. 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 . His father was professional watercolorist. Whorf's sisters are also noted Provincetown artists. Whorf's son Peter has served as a program director at WNYC-FM. Whorf is nephew of linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf and nephew of 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. He later developed the "Kaleidoscope" predecessor "Tempo" while on the air at WTAG. Whorf also put in a brief stint at 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 weekday 1pm time slot, remaining one of WJR's most listened-to programs. KTopics 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 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 to 1984 to serve as program director of classical station WQRS-FM in 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 in 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.
