My Life as a Great Lakes Broadcaster

My Life as a Great Lakes Broadcaster is a true story that takes the reader back more than six decades to when the author and electronic communication were both in their infancy. It is a recollection of stories from Michigan broadcaster Bill Thompson, as he returns to his roots growing up on the family farm in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. It shows readers how he was proficient at performing music in band and orchestra, then became interested in speech at Remus Chippewa Hills High School. From there he moved on to five active years at Central Michigan University where Bill describes his broadcast and journalism training. That college training helped to combine all of those earlier interests into one, and it came up, radio! That led to a forty-year career of rapid cultural, technical, and personal changes. Once leaving CMU, the journey took Bill “up and down the dial” across the State of Michigan, from Alma to Sault Ste. Marie and South Haven, working in various radio jobs except for sales and engineering, before coming to Michigan’s Capitol City of Lansing where he settled into news reporting. After twelve years at two Lansing stations, Bill found his calling at a statewide radio news network for the next twenty-three years despite turmoil and five ownership changes. This book is an exciting journey that those who love Michigan history, culture and broadcasting won’t want to finish until it’s over.