BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The man, the myth, the legend or better known as "Our Man Mike Randall".
"It went so fast. It seems like yesterday when I started, and I will say when I started working at Channel 7, I was so excited about being here. In those days, I was just the feature guy. The funny feature guy. I was so excited, I could hardly sleep at night. Now, I don't sleep at night because I'm old," Mike Randall explained, who is retiring from 7 News after a tremendous 40-year chapter.
7 News' Pheben Kassahun spoke with Mike Randall right outside the station, on a picnic table, as he reminisced the good ol' days.
Randall started working at 7 News in August 1983.
"When I started working here, they had typewriters. Everybody had a typewriter. You probably can't find a typewriter in the building now. It just changed. It's quieter. People are still passionate about what they do, but there's nobody throwing tapes and yelling, and screaming at each other like it was back in 1983 when I started working here," Randall shared.
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"What I loved about Mike was that Mike loved to take control and learned how to do everything himself, which was fabulous," former 7 News assistant news director, Nancy Sanders recalled. "I remember his first story, he thought was like PM Magazine like 5 to 6 minutes long, but 90 seconds was what our limit was but he quickly adapted."
For 7 News Chief Meteorologist Aaron Mentkowski, growing up watching this fellow meteorologist and to be working alongside him in the weather department was epic.
"When I got here, he really embraced me. He actually wrote me a really nice 'Welcome to this station letter' and he really helped guide this young meteorologist and he was a huge part in the fact that I am still here," Aaron Mentkowski said. "It's funny because we never really got to work together a lot because I did weekends, and he was mornings and then he was nights and then we switched. We would only see each other once is a while and now he's doing the stories that are awesome."
Twenty-three years later, the chief met credits Randall for sticking with 7 News.
"There's a reason he's in the Buffalo Broadcaster Hall of Fame because he just does an amazing job and he's an amazing person as well and you don't always see that," Mentkowski added.
A member of the Buffalo Broadcast Hall of Fame, Randall is known for not only his accurate forecasts but being an incredible actor.
7 News Sneior Reporter Eileen Buckley said, "If you've ever had a chance to see his Mark Twain, it's just an incredible narration of what he can do off the top of his head and just his animated ways. The great thing a like about Mike too, as a co-worker and just as a person is that he is always upbeat. He always makes you feel happy when you talk to him. He always has a great laugh and just a great outlook on life."
The fellow Broadcast Hall of Famer, Eileen Buckley first met Randall in the field and did stories during her 30-year radio career.
Buckley added, "Mike Randall, to me, is someone that really is the legacy of 7 News and the many years that this station has existed in Buffalo. He really is part of that long legacy and he did it in such a way to bring entertainment to viewers in many ways."
From one gifted storyteller to another, Jeff Russo described Randall as "groundbreaking".
"The things he was doing television wise, back in the 80s and the 90s and even to this day, had never been done before. He was groundbreaking in the way he approached his stories in terms of the way that he integrated his creativity and his passion for performance," 7 News Reporter/Anchor Jeff Russo said.
Known for his sense of humor, Randall's presence will remain within the depths of 7 News and beyond for years and years to come.
"I just think his sense of humor, I think his creativity, I think his approach to the job day in and day out, finding stories that entertain us, that make us laugh, that make us smile, things we may not have known about in Western New York. He's been doing it for over 40 years," Russo shared.
