Art Wander (born 1927) is a television and radio sports analyst, and former

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

programmer, from

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

Life and career

Raised on the East Side of Buffalo to a Polish-American family, Wander took an early interest in radio, skipping classes to watch

Foster Brooks Foster Murrell Brooks (May 11, 1912 – December 20, 2001) was an American actor and comedian best known for his portrayal of a lovable drunk in nightclub performances and television programs. Early life Brooks was born in Louisville, Kentuck ...

and Buffalo Bob Smith perform their radio show on

WGR WGR (550 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Buffalo, New York. Owned by Audacy, Inc., its studios and offices are located on Corporate Parkway in Amherst, and the transmitter site—used by WGR and co-owned WWKB—is in Hambu ...

live from the W. T. Grant department store. After serving in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

, he produced radio programs for the

Veterans Administration The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing lifelong healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...

hospital system. In 1956 he joined WKBW as a news reporter, and in 1958 hired a young Irwin Weinstein, who returned to Western New York after a stint in West Virginia, as his assistant. Weinstein, later shortening his name to "Irv," eventually became an iconic Buffalo news anchor. Wander went on to program radio stations in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Baltimore, Atlanta, Tampa and Memphis. At WOR-FM in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

he met the

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

and became a friend of

Brian Epstein Brian Samuel Epstein ( ; 19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was an English music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles from 1961 until his death in 1967. Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put hi ...

, their manager. In the 1980s Wander returned to Buffalo radio as a programmer and as an on-air personality in sports radio at WGKT where he earned the nicknames "the Tiny Tot of the Kilowatt" and "your private pope", which was inspired by a fan made theme song. After a quarrel with

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...

general manager

Bill Polian William Patrick Polian Jr. (born December 8, 1942) is an American former professional football executive. He rose to league prominence as the general manager of the Buffalo Bills, building a team that participated in four straight Super Bowls— ...

, Wander was hired by

for a sports talk show, and, starting in 1996, worked in television for Empire Sports Network (and eventually Empire's radio arm, WNSA). He retired from Empire and WNSA in 2002. Wander was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2008. For much of the early 2010s, Wander appeared regularly as an analyst on the

WBBZ-TV WBBZ-TV (channel 67) is a television station licensed to Springville, New York, United States, serving the Buffalo, New York, Buffalo area. It has a primary affiliation with MeTV, but is otherwise programmed as an independent station. WBBZ-TV i ...

program "All Sports WNY" (hosted and managed by his former boss at Empire, Bob Koshinski) and writes commentary for the program's website; his last commentary is from March, 2017.

References

External links

Art Wander columns on "All Sports WNY"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wander, Art 1927 births Living people American sports announcers Radio personalities from Buffalo, New York