Legendary Cleveland TV broadcaster Neil Zurcher to promote new book in Dover
DOVER (WJER) (June 29, 2022) – The king of the “one-tank trip” is headed back to Tuscarawas County to interact with fans and share insight into his newest work.
Longtime WJW TV-8 in Cleveland personality Neil Zurcher will discuss the book ‘Ten Ohio Disasters: Stories of Tragedy and Courage that Should Not Be Forgotten’ at the Dover Public Library from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday.
Zurcher started off as a newspaper and radio reporter in the 1950s before making the transition to television and was present for several of the book’s events. One was a 1967 tragedy where 16 parachute jumpers died after accidentally going into Lake Erie, blamed on an air traffic controller mishap and cloudy skies.
“After that, I started looking at other disasters that I had covered and there were several. And then I kept thinking there were stories I missed out on covering that I was always interested in,” he said.
Those would include the Silver Bridge collapse into the Ohio River and the deadly Who concert stampede in Cincinnati.
Zurcher says the idea for this book actually dates back to when the circus was in town in the 1970s. His assignment editor at WJW at the time suggested doing a story revisiting the Cleveland circus tent fire of 1942 that killed dozens of animals.
“I wrote it down in the back of my notebook and said ‘I’m going to do it someday.’ Well, that someday turned out to be many years later, when I retired,” Zurcher said.
Zurcher says he will take some questions and discuss anything that people in the audience are interested in on Thursday night.
“I do hope that we’ll have a crowd there. We did the last time I was in Dover. Dover has always been very good to me,” Zurcher said.
People planning on attending An Evening with Author Neil Zurcher are asked to register with the library online by CLICKING HERE.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the book.
The book “Ten Ohio Disasters: Stories of Tragety and Courage that Should Not Be Forgotten” by Neil Zurcher. Published by Gray & Company, Publishers.