Brion O’Brion (Screen shot from WILX-TV)

WQHH-FM (Dewitt/Lansing) Program Director Brion O’Brion has been selected for the National Black Radio Hall of Fame.  O’Brion says getting that news brought him right back to where it all started, as a teenager learning radio hands on in Norfolk, Virginia, under his mentor Rick Partey.

O'Brion was nominated in the "Talented Brothers of Radio Award" along with two others.

“I used to be one of those kids used to call up to the radio station and he would let you introduce songs. And he would let you, at the end, you get to say the name of the radio station. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world,” O’Brion told WILX-TV. “Ultimately he invited me up. He’s like, man, you sound pretty good. You ought to be doing what I’m doing.”

That kid who could not stop calling the radio station is currently one of mid-Michigan’s most familiar voices and now a national honoree.

He has a message for those who want to pursue their passion, telling WILX, “There were times when I wanted to give up, you know, because I went to college for nursing. And my parents thought I was crazy when I got into radio. Like, are you nuts? But, you know, I never gave up. I stuck with it. And, you know, like I said, 37 years later, now I’m kind of come full circle. I get to go into the National Black Radio Hall of Fame. And I’m really excited,” O’Brion said.