Best of the Class 1981 with Jeanne Findlater

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4 responses to “Best of the Class 1981 with Jeanne Findlater”

1. 

   Walter (Buzz) Luttrell

   July 4, 2022

   “The Best of the Class,” originally (1981) a salute to Detroit public high school valedictorians was designed to make TV “celebrities” of academic achievers and give young students in that predominantly Black school system role models to “look up to” other than Motown’s pop singers, athletic stars & rich street “hoods” (top survey picks)!
   I created the campaign, which was eventually sponsored in up to 90 U.S. TV markets sponsored by General Motors. I was Community Affairs director for Detroit’s WXYZ-TV (ABC -TV) and can say, with great appreciation that the campaign would likely NEVER have been created had not station VP & General Manager Jeanne Findlater, a former school teacher, broken the “glass ceiling” becoming the “first woman” (1979) to manage a major-market TV station in the USA – WXYZ-TV. She went “out on a limb” to budget for the campaign, which included an original theme song of the same name by motor-city advertising “jingle king” Artie Fields – and still airs some 41 years later in Philadelphia and other markets!

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   1. 

      Terry Pochert

      July 7, 2022

      As one of many engineers at WXYZ, I was always proud of you and the producers which spent so much time working on these projects over the years. Watching the students while these segments were produced show how important this was for them. It was like icing on the cake for them to see themselves on television. Their families must have also been thrilled. I would love to post all of these segments and then follow-up with some of these students to see how many of them are changing the world.

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      1. 

         Walter Buzz Luttrell

         December 21, 2023

         Hey Terry, Buzz here – great to see this (don’t know how, I just Googled my name + the best of the class for a friend who asked about that project). Regardless, it’s wonderful to see your name and read your thoughts. I’m (80) horribly limited with social media but I’ll try to “Friend” you on Facebook, then we can exchange info via Messenger???

         Reply
         1. 

            Terry Pochert

            January 5, 2024

            Thanks Buzz…. I’ll try to hunt you up on Facebook. We worked at a GREAT television station!

            Reply

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