ENTERTAINMENT I
11
w.
DINING EXCELLENCE!
SUPERIOR CATERING!
TWO GREAT TRADITIONS!
10 Seconds
Continued from preceding page
(inside Jacques)
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Elegant Dinners
Continental cuisine, fine wines, beautiful
atmosphere and wonderful service . . . the
choice ingredients for a gracious evening
Reservations Accepted
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FRIDAY JULY 7, 1989
Eat less
saturated
fats.
WERE FIGHTING FOR
YOUR LIFE
American Heart
Association
Freedman's big break came when he was offered the news director
position at WCXI.
talk show hosted by former
Tigers pitcher Denny Mc-
Lain, anchoring and street
reporting. Freedman even did
freelance sports reporting
from the Tigers' training
camp in Lakeland, Fla., dur-
ing that time.
After his graduation from
WSU in 1974, Freedman con-
tinued to work for WEXL, un-
til a format change forced him
to look for other work.
Though he felt he had major
market experience, Freedman
learned that his skills as they
existed were not marketable
in a city the size of Detroit,
and he took a job as news
director at WABJ Radio in
Adrian.
That year-long tour of duty
was a wonderful learning ex-
perience, Freedman says. "It
was 90 minutes from Detroit,
but it might as well have been
on another planet. But I
learned more in that year,
than four years at WEXL."
From WABJ, Freedman took
a job as a street reporter at
WCAR.
Many times in his career,
Freedman says he felt that he
would never progress. Despite
the ups and downs, Freedman
says he is blessed with having
had some "wonderful" oppor-
tunities, but believes a person
makes his or her own breaks
with attitude and hard work.
One of Freedman's biggest
breaks came at WCXI, when
he was offered the news direc-
tor position in 1981. With a
teamwork approach and a
credo of "accuracy, im-
mediacy, and innovation,"
Freedman went on to develop
a top-rated, aggressive news
operation, an unusual
phenomenon for a country
music station. "We had fun,"
says Freedman, "and we
worked hard." More than
that, WCXI began to "win
awards right and left" — UPI,
AP and the prestigious Ed-
ward R. Murrow award —
more than 50 in all.
He owes much of that suc-
cess to the team of talented
broadcast journalists who
were under his direction at
WCXI, he says. The warm
feelings and admiration go
both ways. Debra Beller,
formerly the publicity
manager at WTVS, now the
manager of public informa-
tion for WLIW, the PBS sta-
tion in Plainview, N.Y., was
one of Freedman's an-
chor/reporters. She
remembers her time at WCXI
as "one of the greatest ex-
periences of my life.
"He (Freedman) was just
the best. I learned so much
from him about news integri-
ty and ethics, accuracy and
hustle. But I also learned a lot
about management from him.
And since I am a manager
now, he is one of the people I
patterned myself on as a
manager, because he was
always so calm, fair and
knowledgeable about the
issues of the station and
things employees needed to
know."
Freedman also gave WXYZ-
TV reporter Cheryl Chodun
her on-air break. Though
Chodun had had no air ex-
perience, Freedman says he
could see she was going to
make it. "It was in her eyes,"
he says.
"He was a good boss, but a
very tough boss," Chodun
recalls. "He expects a lot out
of people ... but no less than
he would expect out of
himself. Mike saw potential
and took a chance on me. I
would say he was a mentor."
But by far the biggest
mountain Freedman had to
climb was the restructuring
of UPI's broadcast operations.
In 1986, UPI was hurting
financially. Freedman looked
on the offer to become a
senior producer with the net-
work, "a little crosseyed,
because UPI was bankrupt."
But with his wife, Renee's en-
couragement, Freedman took
the poisiton and moved his
wife and two sons, Brian and
Danny, to Washington. "The
first seven months were ex-