4 | JULY 13 • 2023 

for openers

And the Emmy Goes To …
F

inally, after 45 years, I can add 
a third winning trophy onto my 
mantel. I had given up hope that 
good things come in threes. I suppose the 
old adage “good things come to those who 
wait” must be true.
Now, proudly nestled 
next to my 1967 Detroit 
JCC Tween Basketball 
Trophy and 1978 Southfield 
Parks and Recreation Men’s 
Resident-B League Baseball 
Championship trophy, is … 
an Emmy! Yep, and it’s the 
real deal piece of hardware 
from the National Academy of Television 
Arts and Sciences (NATAS). 
The 45th Annual Michigan Regional 
Emmy Awards were held on June 17, and I 
was fortunate enough to be included among 
the talented filmmakers assembled by 
Detroit Public Television/WTVS to receive 
an Emmy for Best Cultural Documentary. 
It was for the collaborative effort in the pro-
duction of Detroit Remember When — A 
Tribute to Dick Purtan, which aired last fall.
Congratulations to my fellow DPTV 
Emmy recipients Fred Nahat, Bill Allesee, 
Bill Kubota, Rodney Brown and Justin 
Brown. It was an unforgettable experience 
working with these extraordinary profes-
sionals. 
The documentary is an hourlong ret-
rospective of my former boss and his 
incomparable Hall of Fame radio career. It 
also highlighted Dick and his late wife Gail 
Purtan’s decades-long community philan-
thropy. You can still watch it by going to 
DPTV
.org and searching “Dick Purtan.
”
The Emmy was announced at a black-tie 
affair at the Sound Board Theater inside 
the MotorCity Casino Hotel. I opted out 
of wearing my tuxedo because my stom-
ach opted out of trying to squeeze into it. 
Apparently, somebody shrunk my tux since 
my daughter’s wedding five years ago.
During the festivities, I spent some 
time with JN contributing writer Robin 
Schwartz. Robin is the CEO of Robin 
Schwartz PR, the firm she founded in 2016 
after a successful 23-year run as a televi-

sion news anchor and reporter, 17 of those 
years with Fox 2 News in Detroit. Three of 
her firm’s video productions were up for 
Emmys.
By the end of the night, I had my first 
Emmy, and Robin took home her 14th and 
15th career statuettes. Little did she know 
when I congratulated her that I already had 
trophies for my JCC Tween Basketball and 
Southfield Parks and Rec Championship 
wins. Look, I wasn’t about to turn this into 
a competition between the two of us.
I couldn’t wait to tell Dick Purtan about 
the Emmy win. While he’s inducted in 
the National Association of Broadcasting 
(NAB) and Michigan Association of 
Broadcasting Halls of Fame, and a recipi-
ent of the Marconi Award by the NAB for 
national Major Market Radio Personality 
of the Year, I didn’t dare tell him about the 
two regional writing awards I just received 
for my JN columns from the Society of 
Professional Journalists. Why start keeping 
score of our professional achievements 
now?
The fact is, working for Dick Purtan 
was the dream job of a lifetime. It was like 
working for the Johnny Carson of radio. 
Then, to be given the opportunity to con-
tribute to a documentary about his life that 
wins an Emmy? For me, it was the prover-
bial cherry on top. 
I never would’ve been in this position if 
not for my dear friend Sherry Margolis, the 
beloved news anchor and reporter. Sherry 

spent the majority of her Detroit broadcast-
ing career, 35 years, at Fox 2 Detroit before 
retiring in 2020.
She introduced me to the Dick Purtan 
Show after my wife, Debbie, and I returned 
from a weekend getaway to Charlevoix 
in 1992 with Sherry and her incredible 
husband, bestselling author and columnist 
Jeffrey Zaslow of blessed memory. 
Always desperate for attention, I had my 
class clown persona on full display during 
the weekend. Sherry has an infectious laugh 
and has always been my best audience. 
“You should be on the Dick Purtan Show,
” 
she said, “I’m going to call them when we 
get back from Up North.
” Yeah, right.
Well, she did, and I was invited to send 
an audition tape to the show. Days later, I 
was a part-time member of Purtan’s People. 
Four years later, I gave up my advertising 
business to join Dick full-time on the air 
at WOMC in 1996. I’ve never been able to 
thank Sherry enough, who to this day fer-
vently resists taking any credit. 
Sherry was elated to hear about the 
Emmy for the Dick Purtan documentary. 
She knows the feeling, having won seven 
Emmys herself. Plus, she is a two-time 
recipient of the prestigious Edward R. 
Murrow Award. 
Admittedly, when I broke the good news 
to Sherry, I was tempted to remind her that 
I was voted Detroit’s Sexiest Male Radio 
Voice in Hour Magazine’s “Best of Detroit” 
contest in 2006. Yes, a neighbor of mine 
got his friends to stuff the Hour Magazine 
ballot box. But, hey, a win is a win. The cat-
egory literally was eliminated the following 
year.

Finally, let me assure you that winning 
the impressive, prestigious, highly covet-
ed, beautiful, shiny, substantially heavy, 
monumental award that is an Emmy 
will not change me one bit. As a matter 
of fact, I hope I never win another one 
again. Instead, I’ll just keep my sights on a 
Grammy. Lookout Taylor Swift. 

Alan Muskovitz is a writer, voice-over/acting 

talent, speaker and emcee. Visit his website at 

laughwithbigal.com,”Like” Al on Facebook and reach 

him at amuskovitz@thejewishnews.com.

Alan 
Muskovitz
Contributing 
Writer

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