CHICAGO — They call him Mr. February.
Actually, WGN Radio supervising producer Scott Miller sent out an email asking his co-workers to address him only as “Mr. February” for the rest of the year in recognition of his prominent spot in the Remington "Beard Boss" 2015 calendar.
“I gave it a shot, but I’m not sure Mr. February is going to stick,” Miller said.
Still, the radio whiz better known as Pete McMurray’s ginger-haired sidekick has certainly raised his profile thanks to his perfectly waxed 10-inch handlebar mustache.
“My mother is extremely proud,” Miller said.
Like the best facial hair experiments, Miller’s marvelous pencil-thin mustache was the product of unemployment.
“The radio industry is a fickle one. I went 19 months without a job and grew a beard and mustache. After a month or two I looked like a vagrant,” he said. “When I went to trim my beard to look more like a human, I noticed my mustache started to twirl.”
The naturally curled facial hair inspired Miller to slather it with “hair goop” and fashion it a la Rollie Fingers — the big league pitcher who grew his famous handlebar 'stache to score a $300 bonus from Oakland A’s owner Charlie O. Finley.
Scott Miller explains how the epic mustache came to be:
Miller, like Fingers, kept the mustache (and a more neatly trimmed beard) when he was hired on at WGN two years ago. At the urging of pals, who badgered him with photos from the World Beard and Mustache Championships, Miller entered a couple facial hair competitions.
At last year’s Midwest Mustache and Beard Wearers Championship in Madison, Wis., Miller shaved his beard and took home second place in the mustache competition.
That’s where Miller posed for the photo that made him a calendar model.
“I don’t think it’s the most flattering picture of me, because I normally have a beard covering my big double chin,” Miller said. “I’ve exposed a vulnerable part of my face, but I’ll get over it because, after all, I am Mr. February.”
That mustache convention wasn’t the first time Miller had a defining moment at a niche convention. He was just 12 years old when he a chance meeting with legendary Chicago broadcaster Dick Biondi at the Chicago Auto Show changed his life forever.
“I got his autograph, and he asked my name. There was another Scott Miller who was on the air … and [Biondi] said get up here and I’ll let you do the weather,” Miller said.
Almost every Saturday after that until he was 18 years old, the man now known as Mr. February went to every place that Biondi did a remote broadcast to read the weather as “Little Scott Miller.”
Biondi “is like my second father. He’s the reason I got into radio,” Miller said. “I owe him everything.”
Except for the facial hair, Miller inherited his mustache prowess from father, Rich Miller.
“My dad had a huge beard his entire life. I’d say it was an influence,” Miller said. “And I get lots of attention. It’s definitely a conversation starter.”
Beside the attention, the biggest perk of being a "Beard Boss" calendar model is that nobody can tell Miller he’s got a face for radio ever again.
Download the calendar here.
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