WMUZ and Life in Detroit, 25 Years Later

It was October 8, 2018 when a gathering of former employees made a pilgrimage to WMUZ in Detroit, including myself.   This article is mostly for me and my family, plus anyone else who is interested.

The backstory is that when I was 26, in 1986, I moved my pregnant wife and two little kids to Michigan to work for WMUZ.  It was my first venture into the advertising side of radio and it was quite an adventure.  WMUZ is a 50,000 watt FM commercial Christian radio station.

I stayed until 1993 when we returned to Indiana.  I was originally hired for the position of  Master Producer.  A Master Producer is the person who teamed up with a salesperson or two (or more) to write and produce advertising campaigns.  We were not sales people, but we had the responsibilities to do all the creative work and we were paid a small commission for the accounts we handled.

During my time at WMUZ, I also did fill in work for the afternoon show and when we had an opening to do mornings, I took on that role for about a year.   I also took my first step into sales as a radio advertising salesperson at WMUZ.

A few years ago, A Facebook Group Page for WMUZ Alumni was created and those of us on Facebook signed up.  Right now there are 93 members.

Two people have been at WMUZ the entire time from before my arrival in 1986 thru this month.  Frank Francosi who continues as the General Manager; and Randi Gillies, the Business Manager.

Randi retired and her last day was 10-10-18.  When the WMUZ Alumni learned that this was going to happen, we decided to set a day to surprise her with some visits from her past co-workers.

This article is a result of that trip.  A combination of seeing Randi and former co-workers and also creating a photo-journal for my kids who are now in their 30’s who started their young lives during my 7 years in Detroit

I drove the 3+ hours from Fort Wayne, Indiana.  My co-worker Doug Burns flew in from Texas. Some still live in the area.

The first picture is from my drive that foggy morning, about halfway there:

It wasn’t all that bad as the weather was changing.

I decided to visit a former client and discovered that Steve Bemis, the owner of Independent Transmission had sold his place years ago.  The building was still there, but the neighborhood has gone downhill over the past 25 years.

Next stop was the radio station.  WMUZ’s address, 12300 Radio Place used to simply be the end of an alley.  Sometime in the past couple of decades they bought up some of the surrounding residential property as you can see on Google Maps and Streetview.

When I arrived, several others were already there including the current staff.

Most of these folks I had not seen face to face in  the 25 years since I left.  Conversations were fun and interesting.  Here’s a few pictures others took:

Pete, like several WMUZ Alumni I discovered, was there when I was there, left and returned to WMUZ.

Robin was the long time host of the afternoon program on WMUZ (until recently) and in the early days, Doug was her co-host.

Doug and I carpooled together for 6 months shortly after I arrived at WMUZ.  I was his Master Producer and together we created some of the most memorable advertising campaigns during my time at WMUZ.   It was that friendship and partnership that enabled me to use creativity in a way that was both entertaining and got results for our advertising partners at WMUZ.

Mark was telling me how he came to work at WMUZ for the 2nd time.  It was when I was promoted to host the morning show and Mark was brought on to be my replacement Master Producer.  He’s done extremely well as he has been there ever since and still is!

WMUZ was Diane’s first job in radio and she continues her radio career 20 years later.

Only the two guys with the ties, Mark and Pete are current staff of WMUZ.

 

And one last group picture:

I worked with all of these WMUZ Alum except Susan who came after I left. Here’s a few more pics from my WMUZ visit.

 

Speaking of leaving, after some of us went out for a late lunch, it was time to visit the four houses my family lived in.  Some have never changed, like the 1st place in Hazel Park.

This house in Hazel Park was where we lived for the first 6 months, during which time, my youngest Tiffany was born.

We moved to Detroit itself after I went on a business meeting with the pastor of Calvary Baptist of Dearborn.  The church is still there but now it’s a different denomination.

We had great next door neighbors in Detroit, Johnny and Kathy Green who had two boys that my kids played with all the time.  But when it was time for our oldest, Rachael to start school, we moved into Dearborn.

The last place we lived before returning to Indiana was on an island. Getting back and forth included driving over a bridge.

This was on the south side of the island.  I usually paid to take the toll bridge on the north side.

Living south of Detroit, had a different feel to it, especially on an island in the Detroit River.

Overall, working at WMUZ in Detroit and living in Metro Detroit was an experience that changed the course of myself and family.

Sometimes looking back is one of the best ways to also look forward and see how we are blessed 25 years later.

(A big thanks to my former co-workers who took most of the WMUZ pictures included with this article.)