Whatever happened to Ranger Danger? Oh, the irony!!

To my knowledge, he was the last on-air host of children's programming, at least in my home state of New York. Not only that, but in the time he was on the air, Ranger Danger made the most of his effort to revisit the days when kids show hosts were actually quite common. The Ranger hosted WXXA's children's lineup twice daily, mornings & afternoons, up until the mid-90's, when the station was purchased by the now-conglomerate Clear Channel Communications, which has since sold the station to another interest.

The Ranger skits aired during the station's 2 1/2 hour morning & afternoon blocks (6:30-9 am & 3-5:30 pm), as well as during the 4 hour block (8 am-Noon) on Saturdays. The pratfalls and slapstick comedy were a throwback to the days when classic comedy shorts with the likes of The Three Stooges were part of local television fare.

Today, the Ranger may be gone, but his alter-ego of radio personality Uncle Vito rolls on, spinning classic rock on WPYX-FM 106.5 (PYX106), during afternoon rush hours on weekdays. In a fitting piece of irony, the Ranger poked fun at his "other job" in this series of vignettes, uploaded by the man himself on his YouTube channel:

Edit, 11/21/23: Had to change the video. Here, the Ranger's at the state capitol with Senator Neil Breslin:



Ah yeah!! The funny thing is, while the Ranger/Vito and I have never met, I have been mockingly referred to as Ranger Danger by some of my compadres due to my physical size being comparable to the Ranger's. Too bad there's no more syndicated children's programming on local television these days, as it's all on cable. I wonder, though, if PBS might be interested in enabling the Ranger to make a comeback......