Garrard Macleod’s career at WMUK predates those call letters. He began working at WMCR as a student in the 1950’s. He joined the staff full time as a classical music announcer in 1959.
Macleod became Program Director, and then in 1969 there was a reorganization of what was by then WMUK. Station Manager Glen Bishop was named Associate Director of Technical Services.
“I was totally surprised, they just announced that I was going to be the Station Manager.”
We sat down with Garrard Macleod as WMUK celebrates it’s 65th anniversary. An event at Bell’s is being held Wednesday May 18th.
Macleod’s unexpected promotion to station manager came at an interesting time. The first talks had started about something that would become known as National Public Radio. Macleod says the Corporation Public Broadcasting also began offering community service grants to help stations fund positions and improvements.
WMUK used one of those grants to pay for the station’s first full-time news position. In 1973, Tony Griffin was hired as News Director. Macleod says Griffin
“had talents and abilities beyond his news gathering strengths, which were formidable. He was also a great ambassador out in the community.”
Griffin was News Director until he passed away from cancer in 1997. He was 51 years old.
Asked about the major changes over his career, Macleod says the launch and evolution of concert recordings has been a big change. He also says the growth of news programming has been a major development.
Technical developments include boosting the signal to 50,000 watts and being placed at 102.1 on the FM dial, a rare spot on the dial for a non-commercial radio station.
But the station’s commitment to the arts in Southwest Michigan has been a constant. Macleod says another constant has been employees who have remained with the station for a long period of time.
“The staff has been remarkably constant, and they're all really good.”
