Bob "Hoolihan" Wells

Bob "Hoolihan" Wells
Bob "Hoolihan" Wells, c. 1966
Born	Robert D. Wells (1933-09-27) September 27, 1933 (age 83) West Point, Nebraska, U.S.
Occupation	Television personality, weatherman, disc jockey; owner, financial company, BW Financial Services
Years active	1951-1982
Spouse(s)	Barbara Leigh (m. 1956–2007, her death)
Children	Son Rob, daughters Teri and Tricia

Robert D. "Bob" Wells (born September 27, 1933), known as Bob "Hoolihan" Wells, is an American former television and radio personality and actor, who is best known to Cleveland, Ohio television viewers for his appearances on the then-CBS affiliate WJW TV Channel 8 during the 1960s and 1970s as "Hoolihan the Weatherman" and one-half of the Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show movie hosting team. Wells and partner Charles "Big Chuck" Schodowski replaced the former movie host, Ernie Anderson aka "Ghoulardi," in 1966 when Anderson left for Los Angeles to pursue a free-lance announcing and acting career.

The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show aired late Friday nights on WJW for 13 years from December 23, 1966 to August 1979, when Wells left the show and relocated to Florida. After Wells' departure, Schodowski promoted cast member John "Lil' John" Rinaldi to co-host and the show continued for another 28 years as The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show.

Wells was born in West Point, Nebraska. He started his broadcasting career in the summer of 1951 on KWBE radio in Beatrice, Nebraska, after graduating from high school in Lincoln, Nebraska. That fall, Wells moved back to Lincoln to pursue studies in radio and television at the University of Nebraska. Between 1951 and his college graduation in 1957, he worked at Lincoln radio stations KLMS and KLIN, was in the ROTC program, and took time off from his studies to train as a military jet pilot, later serving with the Nebraska Air National Guard.

Upon finishing college in 1957, Wells joined KWTV in Oklahoma City as an announcer, moving two years later to WDAF, the NBC radio affiliate in Kansas City, Missouri. Wells then transitioned to television, becoming a weekend weatherman and staff announcer at the sister NBC television station WDAF-TV in Kansas City, a job he held until 1965. During this time, Wells also resumed his flying career by joining the Air Force Reserve, flying C-124 cargo planes, first on weekends, then for a year of active duty during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.