In addition to his hosting duties, Shannon periodically portrayed his alter ego, Nosmo King, a mysteriously silent, bearded man in dark sunglasses, who stalked about the studio in a slouch hat and tan raincoat.
Nosmo was also featured "driving his car" around Pittsburgh, or playing a one-man-band type instrument to well-known tunes such as The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There".
Other popular characters in the series included Happy Howard (The Friendly Spider), Randy Rocket and The Great Mysto the Magician.
Shannon regularly featured a "Picture Gallery", either pretending to play a player piano or broadcasting recorded songs, such as The Toys' "A Lover's Concerto", while viewer-submitted drawings and coloring pages scrolled across the screen.
A high point of the show came each Christmas season, when Paul Shannon loaded children's letters to Santa Claus into a rocket and launched it to the North Pole.
He portrayed Mr. Music on "Rickie and Copper", hosted "Popeye with Joe and Sandy" as well as "High School Talent Scene", and played Handyman Negri on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.