By Lauren Polanski (9/15/09) – 1:02 pm -
Bonneville, the company that owns KTAR AM, FM, and KPKX here in Phoenix, deserves great praise, and those of us in Phoenix are lucky enough this morning to see just why– without having to be an employee– this company treats their employees and listeners well.
After five months of being off-the-air due to a traumatic brain injury, Darrell Ankarlo has remained on the on-air staff at 92.3 KTAR-FM, and made his long-awaited return this morning.
The show started at 9am with the voice of Valley legend Pat McMahon introducing what would be a well-produced, 55 minutes of the story of Ankarlo’s struggles and rehabilitation from the accident. It included interview clips from Ankarlo himself, his wife, the doctors, and program director Russ Hill. The intent? To inform the listeners of exactly what happened. (PhoenixAirchecks.com still continues to get several page visits each day from people searching about Ankarlo).
Phoenix had an excellent two hours of radio this morning. It’s proof of Bonneville’s rightful leading position as “Best Radio Group” on the Inside Music Media poll (insidemusicmedia.com). It was also a touching, inspirational story of a radio person coming back from what would easily have been a career-ending accident. And let’s face it– in this economy, that would also be if the radio company didn’t use the ax first!
Ankarlo returns to KTAR-FM mornings, 9-11am.
Find the latest on Darrell Ankarlo
Ankarlo.net
Twitter.com/DarrellAnkarlo
