After 34 Years at WGVU Public Media (Grand Rapids), Director of Engineering David Oliver has announced his retirement, effective May 1, 2026. Oliver was recipient of the MAB’s Carl E. Lee Engineering Excellence Award in 2017.
On April 28, the FCC granted the proposed agreements between Gray Media, Inc. and The E.W. Scripps Company to swap television stations across five mid-sized and small markets, resulting in the creation of new duopolies for each group. Among the markets affected is Lansing, where Gray Television will take ownership of Scripps’ WSYM-TV (Fox).
After 18 years spent as WXMI-TV/FOX 17 (Grand Rapids) morning traffic anchor and reporter for Walker, Northview and Comstock Park, Robb Westaby put down the microphone for the last time on April 18, 2026, retiring after more than 50 years in broadcasting.
Wanda Doerner, a former WXYZ-TV (Detroit) News Videographer/Editor who worked at the station for more than four decades and was beloved by her colleagues in the news industry, passed away April 18 at 71.
WOOD-TV (Grand Rapids) has announced that Karina Prieto has joined the station as an anchor/reporter. Prieto recently spent two years as the weekend morning anchor and weekday multimedia journalist at sister-Nexstar station WLNS-TV in Lansing.
Mike Davis, former WXMI-TV/FOX 17 (Grand Rapids) Morning Floor Director passed way on April 11. Davis was a staple of West Michigan morning news. Davis started his career at FOX 17 in 1983 as a commercial editor before moving to the news department. He eventually became the morning broadcast Floor Director.
Bob Kevoian of the nationally syndicated Bob & Tom Show died last Friday (4/17) at the age of 75 in Indianapolis. Bob & Tom’s roots go back to Northern Michigan, where the two met in an upscale “watering hole” called The Bar Harbor in Harbor Springs, MI. They were already in radio, working at two different Petoskey stations, when media sales rep Lucy Nalley (now retired and living in Grand Haven), suggested putting them together on 100,000 watt WJML-FM.
The MAB learned late last week that former WEMU-FM (Ypsilanti) News and Program Director Clark Smith passed away April 7 at the age of 74. Originally hired as News Director in May of 1983, Smith was named Program Director in 2007 and filled both positions until David Fair was named News Director in August of 2012.
McKibbin Media’s WKHM-FM/K105.3 FM (Jackson) has announced the official debut of its newly rebranded morning show, “The Morning Gas” with J-Rod and Micki, “delivering a fresh, high-octane start to the day for listeners across the region.”
Longtime Northern Michigan radio and television personality Vic McCarty has passed away. He died April 6 at Munson Hospice House in Traverse City. He had been battling stage 4 metastatic cancer.