Wow, I have to tell you how fired up I am about the changes to the school's lobby.
One entire wall is a tribute to members of The Specs Howard Hall of Fame. All 37 inductees -- all grads, of course -- are pictured with their bios, and it looks fabulous! Plus, brand new hi-def flat screens have replaced all the old television monitors so it’s really looking great. We have plans to induct several more grads this year so watch for more on that to come…
This week, let me start by saying our female grads rock!
For starters, I recently heard from Kelly Parish (Mullin) who's been doing mornings at WBXX in Battle Creek for several years. Her male co-host recently left so the station decided to call the show “Kelly & Company,” making her the main personality. (Kelly is pictured left.)
Kelly not only brings years of morning drive experience to her own show, she was born and raised in Battle Creek and knows the market better than anyone. I’m always happy when grads get a morning show, but particularly when a woman becomes the main personality, not just the traffic and weather chick. Way to go Kelly!
Speaking of successful women in positions traditionally held by men, a big shout out to grad April Lake, who after several years as Group Program Director for Northern Star Communications has just been named Program Director of WFBE-FM in Flint.
Another hugely successful female I know, Teresa Lucas, has been named PD of WNIC FM. She has served as Assistant Program Director/Music Director for a lot of years so this promotion was long overdue. Congratulations, Teresa!
And then there's grad Linda Lexy (pictured below). Linda runs The Radio Bar at Motor City Casino, entertaining patrons who want to listen to disco as they place their bets. I wonder how many people she has actually dancing at the tables and slot machines.
She is the fourth grad I know who works over there. Just last week I was blogging about the amazing light show Marty LaCombe has created. And then there are two others -- John Stewartruns the whole audio-visual department and is assisted by none other than grad, Dave Shank.
And in other news...
I recently heard from Curtis Smith, a graduate from 1997. He’s been living on the east coast for 10 years in pursuit of a film career. He’s currently producing a feature-length film entitled, “Trust Us,” a sci-fi drama about time travel. He also plans to make his motion-picture directorial debut soon with the film, “Pardoned – A Judicial Memoir.”
Leading up to this, Curtis has worked on a number of films, primarily as the 1st assistant director. His credits include Girlfight, Pootie Tang, Robot Stories, Sex, Love & Lies, The Orphan King, The Tripper and The Education of Charlie Banks.
And last item for this week: I called Alex Tear to congratulate him on the FMQB award he won recently to find that in addition, his morning show -- known as The Morning Freakshow -- consisted of two other grads, Big Bob & Mikey (Bob Mason & Mike Dougherty) who won Best CHR Morning Show! So out of six categories, Specs grads won half of them. Congrats to you all.
