MEET THE STREET TEAM: Pictured left to right: Greg "Dzuku" Gogava, Uncle "The Leaping Gnome" Kernen, Josh "Poki" Hill and "Brother" John Hoover.
Sometimes it takes your Uncle Kernen a while to catch on to things. First it was email and then it was iPods, only to be followed by MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. For an old guy, I try to stay on top of things. I even have this blog, which has turned out to be a pretty fantastic way to keep you all informed of all things Specs Howard for the past year or more.
However, I’m afraid that only recently have I become aware of this little group of Specs Howard employees and interns that call themselves the Specs Howard Street Team.
Apparently, some time in January of this year, we here at Specs Howard decided to get with the program and do what radio has been doing for years, and that is get out and meet people face-to-face the old-fashioned way at traditional social networking events such as the boat show, the car show, club shows, and so on. What a concept!
But in keeping with today's world, the street team is not only trailing after 89x and 101 WRIF at various weekly events, they’re capturing all the fun on video, which the radio stations are uploading for their listeners to watch on their websites. At WRIF, the show is called “Out in the D,” and at 89x it’s the “Insignificant Video Poll.”
Heading up the Specs Howard Street Team are Josh Hill, Greg Gogava and John Hoover. Josh manages the interns and crew while Greg and John take turns producing, directing, and editing the videos. Currently, Nathaniel Kiplinger is the lead host for 89X and Gasper Rubino is lead host for WRIF. The team also currently includes interns Doris Westfield, John Anderson, Sabrina Moore and Nadia Mortada. (Current students take note: Whether your interest is in radio or television, the street team may be for you. Submit your resume to Katie Peters for consideration.)
I’m told they’ll be covering events such as the upcoming WRIF Rock Girl contest (the winner will be receiving an 8-month scholarship to Specs), the Ann Arbor Film Festival, various events happening here at the school, and more! I’m told they may even be taking "The Leaping Gnome" on tour with them. No one can say I don’t get out much!
Look for us at TNT’s Bar & Grill in Clinton Township every Thursday and with the WRIF crew on Saturdays. This week, we’re heading out to Autorama. Vroom! Vroom! Next week, it’s New York, New York!
2009 MAB Foundation College Broadcast Awards
I’m proud to say that almost every year Specs Howard is well represented on the state-level for excellence in broadcasting. This year is no exception. This year's winners are:
Radio
Jason Bahleda
Tony Moore
Andrea Daniels
Robert Laurence
Video
Amy Carter
Ricky Williams
Jeff Ritthaler
James Clements
Additional Award Winners
Last, but certainly not least, sincere congratulations to Cassandra “Cassie” Tluczek for winning a generous scholarship from the MAB Foundation. We have the opportunity each year to select a student that the faculty is allowed to vote on as the outstanding student in our Radio & Television program. Cassie was the winner by a large margin and will receive her award at the Great Lakes Broadcasting Conference and Expo in Grand Rapids on March 11th.
I also wanted to mention this year’s winner of the Suburban Newspapers of America Editorial Award, Peg McNichols. It may seem strange we'd be recognizing a newspaper award winner, but long before she was a writer, she was a producer for several radio talk shows, and she's a grad. We love her! Way to go Peg.
Heard from Roger Beatty about his morning show moving to a new station. This is significant to me because Rog graduated 29 years ago!!!!! He and Dean have been in Houston for 12 years at KKRW and in June will go across the street to KHTC (K-Hits 107.) One of many things I love about this job is that many grads like Roger have stayed in touch for all this time. This is a great deal for both Dean & Rog as they have a contract through 2016! Since he can't start until June (non-compete), I'm looking forward to a visit when he visits his family this Spring.
Speaking of spring, it's time to enjoy this weather so 'til next time--
uk
