David Michael Letterman born April 12, is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. In total, Letterman hosted 6, episodes of Late Night and Late Show , [ 1 ] surpassing his friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late-night talk show host in American television history. He is also a television and film producer. Letterman was born in Indianapolis , Indiana, on April 12, , and he has two sisters, one older and one younger. Letterman grew up on the north side of Indianapolis, in the Broad Ripple area, about 12 miles 19 km from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He enjoyed collecting model cars, including racers. Harry Joseph Letterman survived a heart attack at the age of 36 when David was a young boy. The fear of losing his father was constantly with Letterman as he grew up. A self-described average student, Letterman later endowed a scholarship for what he called "C students" at Ball State.
Letterman began his broadcasting career as an announcer and newscaster at the college's student-run radio station— WBST —a watt campus station that is now part of Indiana Public Radio. He credits Paul Dixon , host of the Paul Dixon Show , a Cincinnati-based talk show also shown in Indianapolis while he was growing up, for inspiring his choice of career: [ 17 ].
I was just out of college [in ], and I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And then all of a sudden I saw him doing it [on TV]. And I thought: That's really what I want to do! He received some attention for his novel on-air delivery, which included congratulating a tropical storm for being upgraded to a hurricane , as well as for predicting hailstones "the size of canned hams".
Letterman also occasionally reported the weather and the day's very high and low temps for fictitious cities "Eight inches of snow in Bingree and surrounding areas". On another occasion, he riffed that the state border between Indiana and Ohio had been erased, when a satellite map accidentally omitted it, jokingly attributing it to dirty political dealings: "The higher-ups have removed the border between Indiana and Ohio, making it one giant state.
