Mr. Wilcox died June 18, 2010
PAUL WILCOX
1925 - 2010.
Polkas.nl would like to remember Paul Wilcox
Our deepest sympathy goes out to his family and friends.
Survivors: Daughters, Rory Wilcox Davies of South Fort Myers and Kelly Wilcox of
Miami, and a sister, Helen Wilcox of Sylvania.
Interment: Being planned at Arlington National Cemetery.
Contributions: Hope Hospice, 9470 Health Park Circle, Fort Myers, FL 33908, hopehospice.org.
Arrangements: Harvey-Engelhardt-Metz, Fort Myers, Fl.
Cleveland television icon Paul Wilcox passed away.
Paul Wilcox hosted the popular Polka Varieties on WEWS-TV for 27 years. He died June
18, 2010 in South Fort Myers at age 85. Paul was born on April 4, 1925 in Sylvania,
Ohio, he joined WEWS in 1954 and served as announcer and sports director. Among many
duties, he broadcast play by play on TV and radio for the Indians in 1961 and again
on radio in 1969. He hosted bowling shows. He announced Cleveland Barons hockey and
Wightman Cup and Davis Cup tennis. He reported from the Cleveland Open golf links
and many other events. He broadcast the first soccer game he ever saw. For his first
two years in town, he was the color man for Browns games. But he quit them in 1956
and started hosting a polka hour on Sundays at 1 p.m., originally with Yankovic.
He worked live at first and later on tape with many bands and dancing audiences.
Paul Wilcox hosted Polka Varieties until 1983. Retiring in the late 1980s to Fort
Myers. His wife Judy died three years ago. Paul Wilcox is on the Trustees Honor Roll
of the National Cleveland Style Polka Hall of Fame.
Paul Wilcox, of Fort Myers, Fl., hosted the hour-long Polka Varieties on WEWS in
Cleveland every Sunday for 27 years, from 1956 to 1983. The show aired from 1 p.m.
to 2 p.m. across northeast Ohio, and was syndicated during its later years to 30
television markets. It was the only television program for this type of music in
the U.S. at that time. The program featured various popular bands that played Slovenian-style
polkas. America's Polka King, Frankie Yankovic, was the original band to perform
on the show. Paul and Frankie teamed up as escorts on more than 60 polka tours worldwide.
Paul had a broadcasting career that spanned five decades. He began on radio in 1947
and retired from radio in 1990 in Florida. He was also a news and sportscaster at
NewsChannel5 in the 1960s. He was a distinguished flyer in the United States Air
Force in the Korean War and World War II. Paul was a POW of the communists during
the Korean War. He once told a fellow WEWS employee that he would count the ants
in his cell to help pass the time. Paul will be interred in Arlington National Cemetery.
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