Michael E. "Mike" Randall is an American actor, playwright, meteorologist and reporter from Buffalo, New York. He is best known within his native Western New York for his long run on WKBW-TV, where he has been an on-air personality since 1983 and was the chief meteorologist from 1999 to 2013, and outside Western New York for his stage shows.
Television career
Randall holds seals of approval from the National Weather Association and the American Meteorological Society. Randall was the first and, until one-time Randall protege Andy Parker also earned his NWA seal, the only television meteorologist in Western New York to carry the NWA seal. His meteorology education comes from Mississippi State University's Broadcast Meteorology Program, while his broadcasting education was obtained from Onondaga Community College, among others. Prior to 1983, Randall worked at WFSB in Hartford and WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, as well as a brief stint as a commercial spokesman for, among others, the New York Lottery in 1978. Randall joined WKBW-TV in 1983 as a feature reporter. His features are still occasionally rerun on WKBW today. In 1989, Randall was paired with Ann Edwards to host Good Morning Western New York, the first morning newscast in the Buffalo market, with Randall assigned weather presenting duties as well as co-hosting duties. Randall became a bona fide meteorologist shortly thereafter; he became the third true meteorologist in the Buffalo market. From 1992 through 1993, Randall was named "Captain" of the children's television programRocketship 7. Upon the retirement of Tom Jollsin 1999, Randall was named chief meteorologist and moved to the station's evening newscasts. He was moved back to mornings in 2009 in an effort to revive the ratings of Good Morning Western New York. In 2013, Randall came to an agreement with WKBW to keep him at the station through the end of 2015. The agreement reduces Randall's workload and grants him the title of senior meteorologist, allowing him to focus more time on his stage work. In September 2015, Randall renewed his contract with WKBW through the end of 2017. As part of the agreement, Randall was to move to a new weekend morning newscast, to make way for Don Paul, whom WKBW signed to cover weekend evenings. Randall is a 2017 inductee of the Buffalo Broadcasters Association's 2017 Hall of Fame.
Acting and theatrical work
Randall is known as a character actor and impersonator performing primarily in one-man shows. His best known impersonations are those of 19th century authors Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. The Twain performances are known as Mark Twain Live! As Dickens, Randall traditionally recites the book A Christmas Carol as Dickens used to do on stage during his lifetime. He studied theater at State University of New York at Geneseo. In 1975, Hal Holbrook, the creator of Mark Twain Tonight, filed a lawsuit against the then 22-year-old Randall alleging that Randall had plagiarized Holbrook's work, singling out Randall mainly because he had done a show in New York City, infringing on Holbrook's territory, and because he wanted to use the "accessible" Randall as an example to deter further Twain impersonators from plagiarizing his work. The two reached a settlement stating that Randall could not use any of Holbrook's work in future productions, but that Randall could continue impersonating Twain. Randall also has a puppet show, "Reading is Magic with Mike Randall and Friends," which is geared toward children and encourages them to read. In 2016, Randall wrote "Shoot the Weatherman," a short two-handerone-act play in which a lawyer takes a meteorologist hostage for making an inaccurate forecast. It was followed in 2017 with "Guns and Roses," a comedy in which a churchgoing couple purchases a gun to their young adult son's dismay. Outside of his own shows, Randall has also appeared in Shakespeare in Delaware Park and at Buffalo's New Phoenix Theatre.
