Bill Cullen worked for fifty years in radio/TV broadcasting. While he is best known as a game show panelist and host, Cullen began his career in Pittsburgh as a radio disc jockey/sports announcer. He continued sports reporting well into his career.
Bill Cullen began his broadcasting career in 1939 at WWSW in Pittsburgh. He worked with Joe Tucker on Pittsburgh Steelers football games and Pittsburgh Hornets hockey games. Cullen also did color commentary for college football and covered track and field events on NBC.
In the early 1950s, Cullen was a panelist on many popular game shows, most notably on I’ve Got a Secret. When guests were sports figures, producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman and host Garry Moore always started the questioning with Cullen. Chances were pretty good that Cullen would guess the secret instantly. Many athletes appeared on the show, including Ralph Kiner, Mickey Mantle, Leo Durocher, Cy Young, Ty Cobb, Jimmie Foxx, Dazzy Vance, Satchel Paige, Jim Marshall, Arnold Palmer, Rocky Graziano, Jesse Owens, Dick Button, Willie Mosconi, and Wilt Chamberlain.
Photo courtesy of TIME
During the 1950s, Cullen started hosting game shows, either as an emcee or a guest host. Over nearly 35 years, Cullen hosted at least 30 game shows, which was more than any other game show host. Examples included Winner Take All (1952), The Price Is Right (1956-1965), and The $25,000 Pyramid (1974-1979). It’s no wonder Cullen was called “Dean of Game Show Hosts.”
Still, he didn’t stray from sports broadcasting, including calling 1956 Army football games for NBC Radio. In 1962, Cullen hosted NBC’s coverage of the America’s Cup Race. The same year, he also hosted Sports Cavalcade, a program similar to ABC’S Wide World of Sports.
With sports broadcasting partner Jim Simpson (photo courtesy Bill Cullen Archive)
The list didn’t end there. Cullen covered a variety of sporting events, including the Grand Prix de Monaco, the Women’s World Softball Championships, the Underwater Spear Fishing Championship, and international women’s basketball.
In 1966, Cullen co-hosted NBC Sports in Action with veteran sportscaster Jim Simpson. They covered many sporting events, including the World Drag Racing Championships, the U.S. Open Speed Skating Championships, the Grand National Steeplechase, and the Orange Bowl Regatta hydroplane race.
On the personal side, Cullen had a lifelong passion for midget auto racing, an interest that began in high school. Cullen even dropped out of high school for a short period of time to pursue a career in professional midget racing. His parents persuaded him to return to high school and complete his diploma, but that wasn’t the end of it, though. He continued racing as an adult, and added building midget race cars to his list of endeavors.
Bill Cullen retired in the late 1980s after a long, successful career in front of cameras. A lifelong smoker, he passed away from progressive lung cancer/heart disease shortly after that. He was only 70.
