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10/22

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cast work doing public service
announcements and was asked to try
out for a new talk show on Channel
7 — "Woman to Woman," which
aired from 1975-1986. Between that
job and her current post, she did
independent producing.
"If I know I've presented an issue
in a sensitive, compelling way and
given my best, then I feel I've
helped," she says.
One Jewish broadcaster, also a
columnist, brought a touch of
Hollywood to Michigan and other
states where her work has been syn-
dicated — Shirley Eder. Although
retired for a few years, she keeps her
home filled with star mementos.
"My mother shared her career
with her family as she established
personal relationships with the peo-
ple she wrote about," says son John
Slotkin, who is archiving his moth-
er's collection of correspondence,
photos and artifacts. "She would
check and double-check her sources,
and she would never write anything
bad about anyone. She had great
respect for others, and she did all
the work herself."
Eder, whose career started in New
York and spanned some 50 years,
frequently traveled to find her infor-
mation. She attended all the Oscar
ceremonies in California and got
credit for articles that helped launch
the careers of director Steven
Spielberg and TV movie critic Roger
Ebert.
"My mother went with Bob Hope
on his last Christmas show in
Vietnam," Slotkin recalls. "She once
covered the circus and went into the
cages with the lions and tigers."
Two other women who have done
celebrity reporting and interviewing
are Leanor Reizen and Shirl Harris.
Reizen, who also has worked as an
actress and still does TV commer-
cials, did a fashion program out of
Milwaukee and an interview-music
program in Detroit. She talked with
entertainers appearing at the Fisher
Theatre, including Jerry Orbach,
Theodore Bikel and Tom Bosley.
"In the old days, we did things
very simply in sound studios,"
Reizen recalls. "Now, we even shoot
commercials where we can have
authentic settings."
When Reizen moved from Detroit
to Lansing in 1966, she turned her
radio program over to Shirl Harris,
now publicist for the Fisher Theatre.
Between 1966 and 1977, WQRS lis-
teners heard celebrity interviews and

Broadway music on Showtime With

Shirl.

"When I had the show, we could
go 20 minutes with music and not
have any commercial breaks," recalls
Harris, whose favorite interviews
included Chita Rivera, Carol
Channing and Celeste Holm. "Now
most stations stick with the top 40
songs and have lots of commercials."
Paul Winter (Saul Wineman) has
a broadcasting career that has given
him work over 50 years, although it
has not always been a full-time pur-
suit. Teaching philosophy at Wayne
State University has entered the mix
that has included being a radio DJ
and now an announcer on public
television.
"What I did on radio depended
on a great deal of versatility," says
Winter, who has had programs
devoted to classical music and pro-
grams featuring rock 'n' roll.
Gary Berkowitz, who worked as a
DJ in Rhode Island and went into
programming in Michigan, started
his own radio consulting business
about 10 years ago. He jokes about
being asked to change his name back
to his real name after taking on
shortened versions.
"They wanted me to be Gary
Berkowitz because they thought it
would be more memorable," he says.
"I've heard stories of anti-Semitism,
but I never experienced any. There
are a lot of Jewish people in the
business, and I think the ones who
change their names generally do it
for privacy, not to avoid discrimina-
tion."
Berkowitz believes that people in
radio and television face more prob-
lems because of age than they do
because of religion, which makes
radio like sports, he says.
Those entering the broadcasting
field get a lot of their cues from
Specs Howard (Jerry Liebman), who
started the Specs Howard School for
Broadcast Arts 30 years ago after
retiring as a DJ. Among the changes
he's noted, is the segmentation of
format and content. Even in the
early years, he could get contracts
that allowed him to observe the
High Holy Days.
"In the long-run, once someone
knows the operation, this is a busi-
ness where people need fire in their
bellies," Howard says. "We can teach
the dos and don'ts of the trade, but
it's how people use them. Talent is
measured by the audience and trans-
lated by the boss." Fl