Cleveland TV Tales Volume 2
by Mike Olszewski and Janice Olszewski

This is the follow-up to the popular 2014 book Cleveland TV Tales: Stories from the Golden Age of Local Television

If you are a Clevelander, you probably have heard of Mike Olszewski who has been in Cleveland radio and TV for years. He is also the curator and archivist of the Ohio Broadcast Archive and Museum.

If you are not a Clevelander, you will recognize some very famous names (Dorothy Fuldheim, Mayor Carl Stokes, Al Roker, Ernie Anderson, etc.) that are featured in stories.

And if you are interested in this era (1970's-90's) of TV you will find trends (big hair, happy news, 'Exchanges', etc.) that port well to any major TV market. But the most fun will be for someone from Northeast Ohio who lived through these times and recognizes the names.

As a Clevelander, I recognized most of the people and knew some of the stories but the book filled in a lot of interesting gaps. For example, the tragic case of the Joel Rose suicide, the progression of characters from Ernie Anderson's Ghoulardi (The Ghoul, Son of Ghoul - even SuperHost), the last years of Dorothy Fuldheim, Al Roker's time in Cleveland and so on.

I never knew that weatherman Mark Koontz was the victim of such pranks or that Ralph Tarsitano and Bill McKay interviewed Danny Greene just hours before his car was blown up.

Stories like that keep you turning the pages.

Reviewed by Dan Hanson