[quote name=\'brianhenke\' post=\'121215\' date=\'Jun 12 2006, 07:13 PM\']
At least there will be another show taking place. The Lottery has had a game show presence since it started in 1974.
[/quote]
Not exactly. In fact, you're wrong. In 1974, The Ohio Lottery Show began with host Gib Shanley, co-host Barney Tremblay (a woman) and disembodied announcer Paul King. Don Webster took over as host a few months later and Jan Jones replaced Barney circa 1978. For its final months, dying completely in 1979, the show was squeezed into a five-minute weekly program.
Don was seen hosting the one-minute nightly drawing of The Number (now Pick 3) starting in 1979. Townsend Coleman replaced him briefly in 1984, Polka Varieties host Paul Wilcox replaced him briefly in 1984 (he read the wrong Lotto numbers one night during the drawing and that was the end of him), Bob Becker took over for a bit in 1985 and then Sam Varr and Karen Harris each drew the numbers three nights each per week. Sam died in 1988 and Bob Becker returned.
In 1987, Cash Explosion {later to become Cash Explosion Double Play} brought back the 30-minute Ohio lottery game show. Your first hosts were Bob Grossi and Sharon Bicknell. Bob left in 1988 to take the chief weathercaster job at WBNS 10-TV in Columbus and Paul Tapie took over. Mike Armstrong briefly hosted in 2000, got canned quickly and Paul returned. Both Paul and Sharon got sacked a couple of years ago and that's how we ended up with the winning pair of Michelle Duda and Leilani Barrett. Tom Bush was the first announcer on Cash Explosion with John E. Douglas replacing him a couple of years later. Bob Becker occasionally fills in. When Bob announced and Paul hosted, it was a reunion of sorts as Bob Becker and Paul Tapie co-hosted the afternoon drive shift toward the end of the glory days at 1220/WGAR in Cleveland with a show called>>>>>Becker & Tapie. Great days. Much missed.