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End of an Era for Moody in the Morning Radio Broadcast

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On a cold late February day in 1973, I rolled into Michigan’s Great Southwest still sporting my short, military-style haircut from four years in the U.S. Air Force and rattled the front door of the WSJM studios in downtown St. Joseph only to find the lights out and the doors locked. I had to retrace my steps by a block to find a phone booth in order to call the studios and ask for someone to let me in because I was “the new kid,” taking the helm as News Director. My fortunes immediately looked up as I found a crisp $20 bill on the floor of the phone booth, more than doubling my cashflow for the day, and my life has been enriched ever since.

That was just about 46 years ago and while there’s no such thing as a phone booth anywhere in downtown St. Joseph anymore, I’ll have to phone it in after March 1st as I formally reveal my semi-retirement today at Mid-West Family Broadcasting. My final regular version of the Moody in the Morning Radio Broadcast will take place on Friday, March 1st, 2019, wrapping up nearly half a century of talking with you all.

I’ve been talking to and about the people of Michigan’s Great Southwest virtually my entire adult life and that doesn’t end. While I won’t have to answer a 3:20am alarm clock any longer, I still live and breathe to keep you informed to the best of my ability. I will still do that here on this platform, through Moody on the Market.com.

On the radio, you will still hear my voice speaking for the businesses and organizations I hold in high regard and have become a spokesman for, but, it’s time to step back and do some traveling, learn my wife’s new passion of PickleBall, and enjoy some of the things I haven’t had the time to thanks to my ridiculous schedule.

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I can’t begin to tell you what a rich reward it has been to help our loyal listeners to kick start their mornings with a little fun and a lot of information. I want to thank anyone and everyone who has ever “invited” me into their home, car, business or elsewhere by turning the Moody in the Morning show on even if only for a few minutes a day.

Call it a phased retirement, if you wish. I’m just easing back…not going away. There are still lots of stories to tell, and I want to be the one to tell them to you, so Moody on the Market.com will hopefully be as vibrant as ever. By sometime next week the site will have surpassed 6,000,000 page views according to the team at Google Analytics, and that still boggles my mind.

When I first arrived on the shores of Lake Michigan I had been hired by Joe Mackin, Sr. as his News Director at WSJM Radio. Sounds lofty, but keep in mind I was also the only news employee as well. I was fresh off my four year stint with Armed Forces Radio & Television in Texas, Turkey and Utah. I was able to prove to the Air Force I had learned enough at Career Academy of Broadcasting in Milwaukee to help their efforts to entertain the troops and create documentary training films on a variety of subjects.

Over the years I also enjoyed a stellar sales career here at Mid-West Family Broadcasting, sufficiently enough to earn the company’s coveted Master Sales Performer status in 1988 after becoming a Certified Radio Marketing Consultant through the Radio Advertising Bureau.

I also was lucky enough to be hired by one of the greatest leadership mentors of this entire region, Jeff Noel, to take the reins at the Cornerstone Chamber of Commerce, a role that I thrived in for nearly 20 years all while still doing the Moody in the Morning Show. That dual role ran from 1994 until late 2013 when I returned full-time to the team at Mid-West Family to create the online presence for Moody on the Market which originated as a column in the direct-mail publication, MailMax. Burgeoning material and minute-by-minute deadlines for breaking news dictated a new platform which we created online to bring free content to anyone who wants to click their mouse or fire up their smartphone.

I have always been a hard core advocate for giving back to the community that has so richly rewarded my life. Over the course of the last four decades I have served at varying points on the Lake Michigan College Board of Trustees, the national board of America’s Public Television Stations, the United Way of Southwest Michigan, the St. Joseph Today Board of Directors, the Westrain Technical Oversight Committee for Amtrak, the Friends of the Airport at Southwest Michigan Regional Airport, the Benton Harbor Lions Club, St. Joseph-Benton Harbor Rotary, the St. Joe River Venetian Festival, Blossomtime, the Berrien Community Foundation, Coloma/Watervliet Area Chamber of Commerce, the Lakeshore 504 SBA Loan Review Board, Volunteer Southwest Michigan, WNIT Public Television, Lakeland Regional Health Foundation, KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship Executive Committee, United Way of Michigan Board, and LM Vintners among others.

I especially love sharing the unique success stories of people all across our region, and recognize that you love to read them, as well…so look for Moody on the Market to continue, and don’t be surprised if I pop up on the air occasionally to help the team out at WSJM…especially when we unveil the 20 Best Places to Work in Michigan’s Great Southwest in March. Will I be calling out your company name and telling everyone why your place is among the best? Stay tuned.

(Photo courtesy of Jonny Reinhardt of 98.3 The Coast)