Our final speaker of the season was Meteorologist and Television personality Jerry Hodak. Jerry was a Detroit broadcaster for more than 45 years. He told us a story that when he was younger, he was interested in electronics, which eventually led him to build his own radio station, that led him to begin to write his own commercials. While attending Wayne State University he took a class on weather and that pique another interest, that combined with being an announcer at WDET, his media career was just beginning.
Jerry spent a short time in Florida at a radio station in Orlando, but returned to the Detroit area to do news and weather at a couple of the local news stations. He explained how weathermen delivered the weather forecast without today’s technology, using maps, magnetic symbols, chalk boards and colored chalk. Jerry’s career was not just in weather, he also did science reports on health and medicine. “Medical Matters” became a regular television production and got network syndicated. He got to meet Carol Channing when she was in Detroit to perform “Hello Dolly” and came to the station wanting to do an on-air weather report one night. One of the highlights in his career was going to Rome for a week to report on Cardinal Maida at the Vatican, and he still laughs at pouring a beer, while doing a Stroh's commercial, reading the teleprompter and doing the weather on live tv.
Now retired since 2010, Jerry resides in Lansing close to his family. He likes playing golf and is enjoying a slower pace of life.
Hearing Jerry voice was like having an old friend stopping by to chat.