Looking Back Before Moving On

by - edited

So this is my final blog as a QVC Program Host. It is so bittersweet for me as I wrap up my twenty- nine years as a host for this incredible place we call QVC.

I remember leaving Beth, Kirstyn and my unborn baby (Kelsey) in Chicago as I drove east to West Chester, Pennsylvania almost three decades ago. I asked God to please let this job last three years so I could get on my feet financially. The home shopping industry was still young and I wasn’t sure that QVC would last for three years. Here I am twenty-nine years later so grateful that it not only lasted but has thrived and become the number one electronic retailer in the world!

Kelsey's birth - shortly after I started at the Q

Our family a few years after we moved to West Chester, PA.

My first day here the producers had me jump up onto the small rotating set in our old studios and say “hi” to the viewers. I remember my boss at the time, John Eastman, told me the phone representatives received many nice comments from viewers who remembered me from my days at CVN (the Cable Value Network which QVC purchased.) You, the viewers and customers of QVC, have made me feel welcome and at home ever since.

My mind and heart are so full of wonderful memories. I have interviewed about every childhood idol I ever had on QVC including Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Joe Namath, Jim Brown and George Foreman just to name a few from the world of sports.

Me and Joe DiMaggio

Me and Mickey Mantle

Me and George Foreman

When it comes to musicians I think of Willie Nelson, Alabama, Darryl Hall and John Oates, Michael McDonald, Smokey Robinson and many others.

On Willie Nelson's tour bus

Hall and Oates in one of the QVC Green Rooms

Me and Smokey Robinson

I had a brush with royalty the day I trained Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. Then there were visits from Hollywood royalty including Charlton Heston, Bob Hope and our beloved Joan Rivers.

Me and the Duchess of York

Me and Charleton Heston

Me and Bob Hope

QVC led the world into the dawning of the new millennium on January 1, 2000 and I was honored to be the host from Gisborne, New Zealand which is the City of First Light. We were eighteen hours ahead of New York. John Tesh and I were on a beach overlooking the Indian Ocean with a cast of hundreds. That same year I hosted our Summer Olympic Games coverage from Sydney, Australia for three weeks.

There were remotes from Oktoberfest in Germany and the Black Forest presenting Cookoo clocks, hummel figurines and more. I have been to the big jewelry show in Vicenza, Italy a few times and I studied watchmaking in Switzerland. There have been hundreds of other “unforgettable moments” when I thought how did I get here?

As I write this I realize, once again, how incredibly fortunate and blessed I have been to be a part of this amazing American success story called QVC. But the best memories I have are not of meeting superstars or traveling the world. They are the memories of coming to work and seeing people I love in the studio and throughout this building. They are all dear friends who have become family to me. And I am so grateful for the incredible privilege to spend time with you. Thank you so much for inviting me into your home for the past twenty- nine years. What an honor it has been for me.

Thank You seems so inadequate for all that this company and you have given me. You were with me for the birth of my Gavin, Cole and Brooke and you were with me as I said goodbye to Beth, my wife of thirty-one years.

I wrap up this long chapter of my life with a heart that is truly overflowing with gratitude. You may know that I am really bad at goodbyes. I get all sentimental and emotional. In fact, I am crying as I write this. So I am not going to say good-bye. I am going to say “I’ll see you later….” You never know when I might stop by on QVC to say hello in the future. Please stay in touch with me and follow me on my new adventures Dan Wheeler on Facebook and we will continue on this journey we call Life together! And I hope you will join me for my final show on Friday, December 29 from 10pm eastern to midnight on the Q. I know that I will need a couple boxes of Kleenex!

I love you and God bless!

Your friend,

Dan Wheeler