Al Eicher is a native of Michigan, growing up in Pigeon. He served in the Army Signal Corp near the end of the Korean War. He attended Bay City Jr. College, Delta College, the National Institute of Technology, and Wayne State Business School. His television broadcast and engineering career started at WNEM-TV. Five years later, he and his friend, Ray Lane, bought the WMIC Radio station near Houghton Lake and West Branch. Leaving radio, he freelanced on engineering projects and directed Red Wing Hockey games from Olympia Stadium. At Campbell Ewald Advertising in the 1960s, after eight years in the Creative Dept. where TV commercials for the Diana Shore Show, Bonanza, Route 66, Bewitched, and other TV shows were created, he became vice president of the Video Production Division.
A few years later, Al joined a newly formed company in Farmington called Magnetic Video Corporation, becoming vice president and general manager. Five years later, the company was sold to 20th Century Fox in Hollywood. As vice president and general manager of the Commercial Products Division of 20th Century Fox, he built television studios and traveled to Europe giving lectures at International Film Festivals in Cannes, France.
Leaving 20th Century Fox, Al went to Embassy Television & Home Entertainment, a Norman Lear company in Hollywood. As senior vice president of Production and Acquisition, he produced 14 shows and acquired 315 motion pictures and televisions shows for distribution in the home video market. He produced shows with Patty Duke, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Irlene Mandrell, and David Horowitz and continued going to the film festivals in Europe looking for more movie properties. In 1986, he went off on his own by acquiring a division of Embassy Television called Program Source International. The new company acquired the children’s series, “Davey & Goliath,” which was placed into home video distribution.
As PSI grew, Al’s son, David, joined the company to help establish the television production, editing and website operations. Together they have produced hundredths of TV commercials, promotional videos and 26 documentaries on towns in Michigan. They have given over 920 lectures on 20 different topics about Michigan history throughout the state.
Al, started writing the “That’s The Way It Was” series for The Lakeshore Guardian in 2002, which now exceeds 210 monthly articles. Al and his wife, Kathryn, live in Bloomfield Hills and have a summer house on Sand Point where their five grandchildren can enjoy the wonderful summers and winter events throughout Huron County.