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I was born in Jacksonville, Florida back in 1950. I graduated from
Paxon
High School in 1968 and later received a Bachelor of Science Degree from Jones
College in Jacksonville. Media wise, my first job was with the
college's
carrier current radio station and their new FM station, WFAM. In my
senior
year at Jones, I was hired as an announcer with their commercial
station,
WKTZ-FM.
- In 1972 I went to work for WTLV-TV in Jacksonville as a member of
the floor
crew. I stayed there until 1976 when I left, for a short time, to work
as a movie theatre manager in Miami, Florida. I worked with several
theatres
at the beach, all owned by Wometco Enterprises. I returned to
Jacksonville
when I joined the staff of WJKS-TV in 1976 as Production Manager. I'm
often asked as to who my Mentors were in those early days of working in
radio and television. In radio, it was Sel Mann, Program Manager of
WKTZ Radio... and in television, I learned a lot from the man that I
hired me TWICE.. . Herb Gold hired me out of college at WTLV-TV and he
hired me again at WJKS-TV. I will be forever greatful to these two men
who gave me my first jobs in broadcasting.
- I met Becky Sipple while working with WTLV-TV. She was in the
engineering
department, being the first female engineer of the station, and I was
in
the production department. We were married in Becky's hometown of
Columbia,
South Carolina on April 16, 1977. In December of 1977, we left
Jacksonville
and moved to Columbia where I went to work as Program Manager of
Columbia
Cable TV, another Wometco company.
- In 1979 I started work on a Master of Mass Communications degree
at the
University
of South Carolina. I received the MMC degree in the summer of 1980.
In the fall of 1980 and the spring of 1981 I taught speech courses at
USC
in the College of General Studies. I was also still working with
Columbia
Cable TV. Following hundreds of letters looking for full-time teaching
positions and receiving hundreds of rejections, I was hired as an
Instructor
by Western Carolina University in
Cullowhee,
North Carolina. While at WCU, I founded a campus chapter of the National
Broadcasting Society - Alpha Epsilon Rho and advised and managed
the
campus radio station. In 1988, I left the mountains of North Carolina
and
moved to the flat lands of Ada, Ohio. There, I joined the faculty of Ohio
Northern University I am an Associate Professor in the
Department
of Communication Arts. Through the years I helped design and build
their
3,000 watt radio station, WONB and
their television production studios.
- On a personal level, Becky and I have six cats.... Jazz,
Bear, Midi, Loui, Ian and Bunny. We have worked with Ohio animal groups
including the Hardin County Humane Society and the Lima Allen County
Humane Society Shelter. In Florida, we have supported The River City Community Animal Hospital. We also support, in Michigan, Carol's Ferals.
- For fun, we travel when we get to... usually when it's
business.