[4] He became a juvenile stage and radio actor; then in 1953, at age 15, became the television host and producer of his own Saturday night teen music show, Rucker's Rumpus Room,[4] first on WKBN-TV, then, until 1957, on WFMJ.
[2] In 1958, he continued his Saturday night television legacy, launching Al Rucker and the Seven Teens program on WJAR-TV, Providence, Rhode Island.
[2][3] One of his other shows, Clay Cole at the Moon Bowl, was broadcast from the Freedomland U.S.A. theme park in The Bronx during 1963 on WPIX-TV.
Clay's 1960 all-star ten-day Christmas show at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater broke the all-time house box office record.
[6][7] Clay was among the few white performers invited to appear at Harlem's Apollo Theater; he headlined three week-long revues, starring Fats Domino, Gladys Knight & the Pips and Chubby Checker.
[2][8] He returned briefly in 1974 as the star of the first HBO-produced music special Clay Cole's 20 Years of Rock and Roll,[4] a two-hour event taped at Rockland Community College,[12] and as co-host of the WABC-TV weekday program, AM New York.
Cole made a personal appearance at the annual Long Island Radio & TV Day in April 2010,[16] and also at the New Jersey Rock Con later that year.