Internationally acclaimed talk-show host Larry King died

CNN: Larry King, legendary talk show host, dies at 87, January 24

• Ed note: Larry King interviewed Yelm’s JZ Knight on August 2, 2008 in the show titled “Change Your Mind Change Your Life.”
• An except of the media release for CNN’s Larry King Live show said:
• “In a revolutionary new episode, Knight and King discuss and explore the vast potential of the human mind. Joined by a distinguished panel of guests including scientist and author of The Conscious Universe Dean Radin, psychoneuroimmunology pioneer Candace Pert [now deceased], “Dr. Quantum” Fred Alan Wolfe, producer/director/writer of the acclaimed film “What the #$*! Do We Know?“ Will Arntz, and astronaut Edgar Mitchell [now deceased], who was the sixth man to walk on the moon, Knight discusses the amazing capabilities latent in all of us, sheds light on the world of quantum physics, and explains how neuroscience plays a part in creating reality. CNN’s own Sanjay Gupta also lends insight with fieldwork from The Biocybernaut Institute in Santa Clara, CA.”
• Click here for the video to part 1
• Click here for the video to Part 2.

I met Larry King 45 years ago:

I met King while Manager of the University of Miami Football team. King was an avid UM Football fan and would often visit the practice field as a guest.

In the mid-1970s, he had a radio show that aired from Pumpernick’s Deli & Restaurant [now out of business], on Miami Beach across from the Carillon Hotel. His sports talk-show “Sports-a-la-King” featured callers asking his guests questions in the restaurant’s seated booths. He broadcast for Miami’s AM radio station W.I.O.D. (Wonderful Isle of Dreams), located on Harbor Island on the 79th St. Causeway between North Miami & Miami Beach.

King was one of the few non-UM affiliated spectators allowed in to see the team practice, so I got to meet him on the sidelines in 1976 & spring 1977. King got an interview with newly hired UM Head Football Coach (formerly of the Buffalo Bills) Lou Saban during Spring football practice of 1977, and did the radio session from UM Football Offices.

King did not return to UM practices after the Autumn 1977 football season ended, as his radio show went national on the Mutual Broadcasting Network (MBS) in January 1978. I did not see him again, as I became employed by Eastern Airlines and transferred to San Francisco later that year. King’s career took off at MBS and CNN hired him in 1985.   

As happenstance, King wrote a book in 2006: My Dad and Me, a signed copy he gifted to me 30 years after we met.

When I was employed at RSE as the Event Services Manager and Travel/Logistics Coordinator, I worked with King’s Executive Producer at CNN Wendy Walker, coordinating JZ Knight’s 2008 guest interview details. I then mentioned to Ms. Walker about meeting Larry in the mid 1970s at the UM Football Field House. After JZ’s show appearance, I received King’s book in the mail signed by him with a personal note that he remembered our visits at the Miami practice field. I still have his signed book! That simple gesture touched me greatly.

King did not become world famous until the mid-1980’s when he went with the then-fledgling cable network CNN and was a history-maker there for 25 years.
R.I.P Larry! 

Click here for an excellent tribute to King’s life from CNN.

Steve Klein