Time to set the record straight about Joe Kohorst, the man of many hats with a larger-than-life personality. He is a long-time resident of Grand Terrace, yet most people don’t know him outside of being Mr. TV. This article is important to me for obvious reasons. He is my dad and I want you to know him the way that I do.
After a somewhat colorful childhood, he decided to join the Navy at the age of seventeen, where he excelled well beyond what was expected of him. In doing so, he had the extreme honor of meeting President John F. Kennedy aboard the Naval Carrier Kitty Hawk in the year 1963, the same year the President would later be assassinated. Being hand picked to meet President Kennedy remains one of Joe’s most precious memories, but his accomplishments didn’t stop there.
Upon leaving the Navy with his extensive knowledge and training in electronics, he immediately found work repairing televisions in a store called Cullen TV in San Bernardino, California. During his years working at Cullen he also moonlighted as a musician playing lead guitar with his rock and roll band. After the other members of the band decided to move to San Francisco for the music scene, Joe chose not to follow, and was later replaced by a musician named Sammy Hagar. This passion for music never died, and much later in life he would pass his love of music on to his son, Joey.
Having worked at Cullen for thirteen years, Joe would decide to open a store of his own. After acquiring a business partner, Mr. TV was born in Riverside, California in 1977. He spent eight years in the Riverside location before deciding to open a new store with no partner, and in 1985 he opened Mr. TV in The Terrace Town Center in Grand Terrace. In 1992, he purchased the corner of Barton Rd. and Mt. Vernon, where he moved his store and subsequently became quite the landmark. He proudly ran that business until the day he closed its doors in 2013, and though he no longer owns the corner or the store, he will always be Mr. TV.
During his years as a working man, he never stopped living his life. He raced drag boats from 1973-1983, where he set three national records in two different classes. In 2002, he began racing Super Stock race cars in the NHRA, where he has since won a total of three Wally’s, one of which was for winning an entire National Event in 2005. Even now, at the age of 75, he continues to drag race in the NHRA.
When he’s not riding around Grand Terrace on his little red scooter, you can usually find him under his racecar, covered in dirt and oil, with a smile on his face. He’s an ordinary man that has done extraordinary things, the very embodiment of the modern day Renaissance Man.