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Posted: Tuesday, 29 September 2009 11:52AM
Felicia Middlebrooks
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Felicia's Special Christmas Series
Recognized for her warm signature voice, 33-year veteran journalist Felicia Middlebrooks has co-anchored the award winning morning drive program for CBS Radio/WBBM Newsradio 780 since 1984, making her the first woman in America to have survived the highly competitive timeslot for a record 25 consecutive years at a network owned station.
She was the first woman in the nation to co-anchor mornings for CBS Radio and the first African American in that position. She successfully broke the longstanding male dominated barrier and today women now co-anchor mornings at all CBS Radio Stations across the country.
Her early days in radio began in her native Northwest Indiana, where she worked as an anchor and street reporter for WBAA-FM, WJOB-AM, WGVE-FM and WLTH-AM before coming to Chicago. Working her way through Purdue University as a steelworker, after a 7-year stretch, Felicia graduated with honors, obtaining a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications.
In 1982, she was hired at CBS 2/WBBM TV, then took on a freelance position with WBBM Radio in 1983, working in both newsrooms simultaneously. She later joined WBBM radio full-time, becoming the station's youngest female anchor/reporter.
Chosen from among the nation's top journalists, The William Randolph Hearst Foundation selected Felicia to serve as one of nine judges in its prestigious annual print, photo-journalism and broadcast Awards competition in San Francisco. Felicia recently completed her 3-year tour of duty as a broadcast judge.
Felicia has covered numerous top stories over her career including President Obama’s Inauguration in Washington D.C., Nelson Mandela’s visit to Detroit and Michael Jackson’s Memorial. She has also won scores of awards, including the coveted Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in News, Associated Press "Best Reporter Award", and kudos from United Press International, Women in Communications, The Urban League and American Women in Radio & Television. She also received The Peter Lisagor Excellence in Journalism Award for reporting, honors from the National Association of Black Journalists and the Illinois News Broadcasters.
Very active in the community, Felicia has also been honored by the March of Dimes, the League of Black Women, The Illinois Judicial Council, Lions Club, YMCA, YWCA, and she received the prestigious Toastmasters International "Leadership in Communication" Award. She's also been included in the Who's Who Among International Women in Cambridge England and has been featured in the American Journalism Review, Chicago Magazine, History Makers, Today’s Christian Woman Magazine, Chicago Tribune and Screen Magazine.
Frequently on the lecture circuit, Felicia has mentored scores of young people with aspirations of becoming journalists. As an adjunct professor, she teaches courses at Purdue University Calumet, where she was named Outstanding Alumnus of 2003, and she teaches a course in Radio News at DePaul University. In 2006, she was inducted into the International Press Club's Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame. And Felicia recently accepted Advisory Board positions with Columbia College’s School of Journalism, De Paul University’s School of Communications and Purdue University’s School of Liberal Arts.
Felicia runs her own production company, Saltshaker Productions, LLC with offices in Chicago and Los Angeles. She also founded the non-profit Hollywood Comes to Chicago, to benefit aspiring screenwriters who have no means of connecting to movers and shakers in Los Angeles and New York.
A published author, her work is featured in two newly released books (Summer and Fall 2009)—Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace and Our Voices: Issues Facing Black Women in America (Moody Publishers). Her writing is part of a best selling collection of essays titled Souls of My Sisters (Kensington Publishing 2001, re-released in 2008). Her work has also appeared in the popular college textbook Professional News Writing (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishing). In 2006, her book Called was published by Moody. It is the personal account of Lisa Jefferson, the Verizon supervisor who took Todd Beamer's call just before United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. Felicia is currently working on a non-fiction inspirational book titled Everything I Know About Life, I Learned in Radio: Everyday Lessons for Every Life.
After returning from a riveting trip to Rwanda, Africa, in Spring of 2004, Felicia received accolades for her groundbreaking special reports on the 10th anniversary of the 1994 genocide and its aftermath, in which a million people were slaughtered. Her first documentary film, Somebody's Child: The Redemption of Rwanda, won First Prize-Best Documentary Short from the Grand Jury at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in December 2005.
Felicia serves on the Board of Directors for two non-profit organizations: Hands of Hope, dedicated to meeting the critical needs of women and children worldwide who face disease, poverty or persecution; WINGS: Women in Need Growing Stronger, an agency that assists victims of domestic violence, and she is a Sustaining Trustee for Children's Home and Aid Society (CHASI), an agency which provides help to challenged parents and offers placement for children removed from abusive home environments.
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