Joe Pinner

Rest in peace Mr. Knowzit, I loved your show when I was a child and as an adult I met Mr. Pinner in downtown Columbia and he was very kind a gracious.

I just heard about this on 3/26/2025 while on a business call down to Columbia.

Joe Pinner was one of the reasons why I went into broadcasting. In 1998, when WIS-TV (I still use the "-TV" as I still remember WIS-AM, 560), was looking for old video of what they looked like over the years to celebrate their 45th anniversary with. So, I brought in a couple of VHS cassettes of material I recorded in October 1980, while visiting my grandmother in Wagener. When he walked past the edit booth where Christy Kednocker, my daughter, my then-wife. and I were watching the tape, you should've heard his laughter! The laughter was at how he looked 18 years earlier! So, of course he invited my family and I to be the "studio audience" for the 12 noon news with Dave Stanton. So, as Joe was in front of the "green wall" doing the weather, he kept motioning for me to let my then 4-year-old daughter walk on-camera with him! And, of course, I kept shaking my head! The more he gestured, the more I shook my head! It was a really funny game! Joe already knew that I was adamant about Rebecca never going into Broadcasting. Why? The local and community focus which had made the business so much fun when Joe and I started in the biz was already drowned in a sea of homogenized corporate mediocrity by then. Never to return, alas. (I was in it from 1974-2019)

So, I can see Joe joining Ed Carter and Dave Rogers in doing the "Seven O'Clock Report" from a Heavenly 1111 Bull Street. God Bless you and God Bless your soul, Joe.

As a child I watched Mr. Knozit everyday. It was my favorite show as a child. I left the Columbia, SC area about 2014 and was wondering what Joe Pinner was doing.

I lived in Florence, South Carolina in the late 1960's to the early 1970's and remember watching his show, Mr. Knozit. I always enjoyed the show. Today, November 30th, 2024, I looked up the show after all these years, and was saddened to learn that Mr. Pinner had passed. His show ran for decades! A testament to his talent, the quality of the show and to him as a person. God rest his soul. - Robert Davis, Jr. (Ohio)

I moved to Columbia from Florida in 1970. Joe Pinner became a part of my life. HE taught me to love Columbia, S.C. with a passion. I had to move back to Florida 11 years later but my love (especially of the South Carolina Philharmonic, Jack Bauer, the director, and other things in and near Columbia have never left me. ) I still love Columbia. My family is there, even some ancestors and memories of Joe! I just found out he had died. Will miss him deeply in my heart.

My first memory of Joe was when I was a little kid watching the Mr Knowzit Show. He always had a smile on his face and his laughter I shall never forget. I´m almost 72 and I don´t think I´ve ever met a more joyful person.

So sorry for the loss Joe Pinner was funny and full of life I met him only once when he was with Wis well my dad had a Tec grill and I wrote to him and the station came out and we had dinner with him and it was great but sorry again love Tricia