WMHW to dedicate studios to former BCA faculty member
Central Michigan University’s School of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts is set to honor one of its own.
Moore Hall’s radio broadcasting studios and the adjacent control rooms that house CMU’s two student operated radio stations will bear the name of retired BCA professor and WMHW Radio station manager Jerry Henderson. The studios will be dedicated at 3 p.m. on Friday.
Five years after the end of his teaching tenure, Henderson’s career of dedicated work in the Central Michigan Broadcasting Department, now, will serve as a lasting legacy that will be upheld with great respect, said Peter Orlik, director of the School of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts.
The Dr. Jerry Henderson Radio Complex, Orlik added, is a fitting new title for the WMHW radio studios.
“(Henderson was) of the most innovative figures for Central Michigan broadcasting,“ he said. “He took the WMHW radio station from a small 340 watt college station to its current 13,000 Watt level as station manager.”
Henderson’s work expanded the station’s signal outreach beyond Mount Pleasant and Isabella County, Orlik said. WMHW’s signals currently cover a radius from Frankenmuth to Big Rapids and Cadillac to St. Johns.
Henderson’s contributions to WMHW as station manager allowed the voices of CMU’s aspiring broadcasters to be heard by thousands of ears throughout mid-Michigan daily.
Now, with more listeners and more exposure than ever before, Orlik said current broadcasting students of CMU are the main beneficiaries of Henderson’s work.
This is a final product that denotes a teaching career that was dedicated to working for his students, Orlik said. A group of alumni who were students of Henderson was the driving force behind naming the studio.
Timothy Jackson, who graduated in 1986, is one of the alums who studied under Henderson and saw this dedication come to fruition.
“The renaming had been discussed for a while,” Jackson said. “A lot of us (alumni from all different decades) felt that Henderson had the biggest impact and influence on us as students and professionals."
Henderson said he is surprised his former students came together to honor him with the studio naming.
“I’m overwhelmed,” he said. “Honestly, I am shocked and surprised, but, mostly delighted. It is even more fulfilling that former students nominated me.”
The dedication of the studio starts at 3 p.m. on Friday in the Townsend/Kiva Auditorium Lobby in Moore Hall. It will be followed directly after by a reception in Moore 182—Studio A.
Students, faculty and community members are welcome to come to the dedication in honor of Henderson.
