Longtime WZZM-TV (Grand Rapids) Vice President of Technology Chuck Mikowski has retired after 45 years of service to the station. Mikowski’s first day at WZZM was January 7, 1980 when he came aboard the station as a maintenance technician.
A veteran media and advertising executive is joining Mid-West Family Marketing & Media in Michigan and Indiana. Tom Nankival will assume the radio and digital sales leadership for Mid-West Family media platforms focused on the Michiana region, from South Bend/Elkhart to St. Joseph/Benton Harbor and South Haven.
On April 22, McKibbin Media Group (Jackson/Hillsdale) hosted a successful Community Job Fair at the Commonwealth Commerce Center. The event brought together local businesses and job seekers in an effort to strengthen workforce connections across Jackson County and surrounding areas.
Michigan Public reporter Sarah Cwiek has been selected as a winner of the 2025 Wade H. McCree Advancement of Justice Awards, sponsored by the Michigan Press Association Foundation. Sarah was honored for her story: “A wrongful conviction, and a Detroit serial rapist who stayed free: Here’s how it happened”.
The Michigan Press Association named WXYZ-TV a winner in the 50th annual Wade H. McCree Advancement of Justice Awards. A panel of four judges representing law and media chose WXYZ-TV’s “Improper conduct by a powerful probate judge” to be awarded one of the honors.
Beasley Media Group Detroit, in partnership with University of Michigan Athletics and Learfield’s Michigan Sports Properties, has announced a multi-year broadcast agreement that will make 94.7 WCSX-FM the new flagship radio home for the Michigan Wolverines. The partnership will officially kick off with the 2025 Michigan Football season.
On April 9, the staff at Sinclair’s WWMT-TV (Kalamazoo) came together to help two local West Michigan food banks: Loaves and Fishes in Kalamazoo and the South Michigan Food Bank in Battle Creek. Station staff volunteered at both food banks to bring awareness as part of the nationwide “Sinclair Day of Service.”
A proceeding before the Copyright Royalty Board to set the rates to be paid to SoundExchange for the public performance of music by a non-interactive commercial webcasting service for 2026-2030 started last year, and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025. SoundExchange and one of the major webcasting parties remaining in the case, the NAB, this week filed with the Copyright Royalty Board a proposed settlement of the current litigation over the royalty rates to be paid to performers and copyright holders.
Scripps Media has announced the promotion of Tim Kochenderfer to the role of station manager for WXYZ-TV and WMYD-TV (Detroit), effective April 14. As station manager he will help with day-to-day operations and also continue to lead news.
Last week, your MAB News Briefs highlighted three broadcast towers in northern Michigan that went down due to ice-build up during the severe weather that existed over several days. As we wrote, the 600-foot tower of MacDonald Garber Broadcasting’s WKHQ-FM (Charlevoix-Petoskey-Traverse City) was toppled.