When I first joined the staff at Specs Howard School back in the last century, as the glaciers melted (for the first time), I’d be looking through the trade publications and wonder if any of our grads would get a mention one day.
Well, to my delight, Specs Howard grads have long surpassed anything I could’ve imagined back then. You’ve been out there making headlines, cover stories and winning magazine awards for years. I learned of three of them just this past week.
For starters, I was thumbing through the year-end special issue of FMQB (Friday Morning QuarterBack), a national radio/music industry publication, and discovered that two of our grads won awards.
Alex Tear of WKST (KissFM) in Pittsburgh, PA, won Best Program Director in the CHR (Contemporary Hits Radio) format, and Billy “The Kidd” of KHKS Dallas won best Music Director in the CHR format.
Now it might interest you to know that Billy got his start in radio by working as an intern at WDRQ here in Detroit where Alex was the program director a few years ago. I guess that says a lot about the value of learning from the best. My congratulations to them both.
In addition to the trades, I’ve found that our grads get featured not only in the trades, but in the consumer press as well pretty regularly.
Biz X magazine, a publication based in Ontario, Canada for businesses along the Canada-USA border, recently awarded Armand “Arms” Bumanlag of CKLW & 89X (CIMX) their "Pilot Of The Airwaves" Oscar.
Arms actually began his career at Chum Group Radio as an intern before he graduated. They liked his attitude and work ethic so much that they kept finding him more and more to do over there and so he hasn't left since!
It’s always good to hear that the grads most committed to their careers get recognition. I’m like a proud … UNCLE this week!
And just so that the people on the Specs Howard faculty who lead by example get their due praise, I’d like to share an excerpt from a letter we received from Andrea Lemle, a recent grad from RTV-02-07, this week:
"I want to thank you for all the help and all the pushing you guys did. Without your help I would not be where I am today. Just the other day I landed a job as a part-time news personality in Big Rapids at WYBR. I will actually be replacing another Specs grad.
"I want to thank you John Stockwell for being so understanding when I had a question about Broadcast Writing. I want to thank you, Eric Braun, for being an amazing first and second quarter instructor. You pushed me further then I thought I could go when I first attended Specs. I love the fact that the first week you teach us verbally what to do in the studio... then throw us in... and freak us out. Now I feel like I can handle anything.
"I want to thank you, Sue Kinney, for pushing me beyond my limit. Thank you for taking on the horrible task of taking a class not ready for anything and making us ready for everything. For pushing me to do better... to do more. Without your help with my demo and pushing me I don't think I would have landed this job.
"I would just like to say thank you. I know you all have long days. and I just want to let you know that I do appreciate everything you all did for me. You helped my wildest dreams come true. So, thank you for being the awesome people that you are!"
And thank you, Andrea, for giving back!
'Til next week, folks... How's everyone doing on their Christmas shopping?
~Uncle K
Work the holidays to your advantage!
