Longtime radio programmer Michael Spears lost his long battle with cancer
two weeks ago, passing away on October 25th in Dallas, TX.

For those unaware, Michael was a three-time winner of Billboard Magazine's
"Program Director of the Year" award, and his stations were recipients of
"Station of the Year" on three separate occasions. He was inducted into the
Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2004. He had previously served as President of
the Dallas Press Club. Although those achievements just barely scratch the
surface of all the things he accomplished during his illustrious career.

Those in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and anyone who followed Top 40 radio
around the country in the 1970s, are no doubt familiar with his work. In
the 1960s, he was a disc jockey on Gordon McLendon's flagship station, KLIF,
The Mighty 1190, using the name Hal Martin. From there, he worked at
CKLW/Windsor-Detroit, KGB/San Diego and WYSL/Buffalo. He returned to Dallas
in 1972 to program McLendon's legendary FM, KNUS ("KayNews 99"), until
leaving in 1973 to program RKO General's KFRC/San Francisco during the tail
end of the Drake era. He later programmed KHJ/Los Angeles before buying a
station, WPLP in Tampa/St. Petersburg, where he also programmed the station.
From Tampa, he served as programming consultant for KFJZ/Fort Worth-Dallas,
and was involved with the station when it changed call letters to KEGL and
became "Eagle 97." He moved back to Dallas/Fort Worth in the 1980s, where
he served as Program Director for KKDA (K-104), and led the station to #1 in
the Arbitron ratings, a feat that was virtually unheard of for an Urban
station at that time. (Friends of Michael thought it was pretty funny when
he -- a white man -- won "Black Programmer of the Year" while at K-104.) He
later moved to Chicago, where he programmed WPNT, until returning to Dallas
for the final time in the 1990s to program NewsRadio 1080 KRLD, where he
remained for about 7 years. He left the station a few years ago and applied
his efforts to various consulting endeavors, most notably when he worked
with the City of Dallas in formulating a strategy for them to decide what to
do with the city-owned classical station, WRR. He also worked in helping to
syndicate various talk shows, including America at Night, Healthy Living
Radio with Dr. Ken Cooper, Inside Sports Medicine with Dr. T. O. Souryal and
others. At the time of his death, he'd been working with fellow Dallas
radio legend George Gimarc on the development of a new radio format protocol
(which you will no doubt hear about in the future, as it is very much still
on track to be unveiled before too long -- when you hear the name SASS,
you'll know Michael was involved).

On a personal note, Michael first brought me to Dallas (where I worked for
the better part of 25 years) to be part of that legendary staff at KNUS in
1972 (almost all of whom are now enshrined in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame),
and gave me the air name Christopher Haze. In 1980, while he was consulting
KFJZ-FM, he persuaded owner Gery Swanson to hire me as Program Director,
where we flipped the station's call letters to KEGL, and I remained to
program The Eagle for six years. In the 1980s, he gave me my first-ever job
as a station signature imaging voice, for his news/talk station, WPLP, in
Tampa/St. Pete. Upon his return to Dallas at KRLD in the mid-1990s, where
his predecessor had used me primarily as merely a graphic artist, Michael
virtually saved my career by once again utilizing me on the programming
side, where I'd spent my entire career. In 1999, he introduced me to the
folks at Cumulus, which opened the door for me to run their national
production facility, which eventually led me to launching my own company,
Brown Media, Inc., in 2001 here in Atlanta.

I just returned yesterday from Dallas, where I spoke at the memorial service
on Sunday, and also attended a wonderful "Friends of Michael" celebration
that night. It was attended by over 150 industry legends, including the
entire 1972 KNUS staff -- Bart McLendon, Ken Dowe, Beau Weaver, Kevin
McCarthy, Jim White, Tommy Kramer, Dave Cooke, Jo ("Darcy Kane") Interrante,
Nick Alexander (who orchestrated the event) and myself. Not to mention many
other Dallas-area radio people, including Tyler Cox, Jerry Bobo, Bob
Morrison, Jack Hines, Bob Stevens, Larry Shannon, Todd Whitthorne, Eric
Chase (the KNUS one), Bob Hathaway, Roger Emrich, Mike Rogers, David Gold,
Dwayne Dancer, Lynne Haze, and, as Michael used to say in many radio promos,
"others too numerous to mention." Also on hand were several folks who
worked with Michael at KFRC, including the legendary music director Dave
("The Duke") Sholin, Eric Chase (the KFRC one, now known as Paul Christie in
Houston), Les Garland, Kevin Metheny, and others.

Both the memorial service and the celebration afterwards were nothing short
of a "Who's Who" of radio for the past 4 decades.

Michael Spears' contributions to radio were enormous, and the vast number of
people who showed up for the memorial service from around the country was
clear evidence that he touched many lives. But his most lasting
contribution will likely be one we worked on together at KRLD (although I
must say that my involvement was very much on the periphery). He was the
creator of the Amber Plan, which began as nothing more than a fax machine in
the KRLD control room with all the other DFW-area radio stations' fax
numbers and law enforcement agencies programmed into its memory. Today,
after years of refinement, you all know it as the national Amber Alert
System. It all started from KRLD's studios at The Ballpark in Arlington.

I am proud to have worked with Michael on so many different occasions, but
most of all I am blessed to have been able to call him a dear friend, and to
have benefitted from his uncanny ability to bring many different people
together. Through him, I have many more friends than I might otherwise have
had. Michael Spears will be sorely missed.

Randy Brown
aka "Christopher Haze"
President
Brown Media, Inc.
Atlanta, GA
www.brownmedia.net