Uncle Al pasted away

Uncle Al pasted on February 28, 2009. Until I was 5 years old. He was favorite of mine. Interesting how the show got started This from Wikipedia

The show's origins were completely happenstantial. In the summer of 1949, then-General Manager Mort Watters asked Lewis (hired on two months earlier as WCPO's first art director) to host an hour-long filler show called Al's Corner Drugstore, in which Lewis, dressed in a soda jerker uniform, would take phone-in requests for songs which he would play on his accordion, which would later become one of his many trademarks along with his straw boater hat.

At that time, the show was not aired in a closed set, so people could walk in from off the street to watch the show in person. Neighborhood children began doing just that, and Lewis, having a natural affinity for children, invited them onto the stage during the show. The same kids would return on subsequent occasions bringing friends, and they all took to calling Lewis "Uncle Al".

When mothers began calling in to the station requesting tickets to be on The Uncle Al Show, a Cincinnati institution was born again, completely by accident, although Lewis himself never treated it in such a manner; the show's remarkable longevity can stand alone as witness to that. The Uncle Al Show made its official début on June 12, 1950. Having originally started as a 15-minute outing, it quickly expanded into an hour long show airing three episodes daily: