The Michigan Association of Broadcasters is honored to recognize Traffic Directors from across the state on National Traffic Professionals Day, November 2, 2021 – which is the 101st anniversary of the first commercial broadcast.
Their hard work is often unseen but is critical in ensuring viewers and listeners in Michigan get the important news, information
and entertainment that shapes their lives.
The work of Traffic Directors touches every part of a station and what goes on-air would not be possible without their diligence.
The MAB is proud to salute our state’s Traffic Directors and appreciate their thorough, consistent efforts to keep local TV and radio strong.
Traffic Directors, please fill out your Traffic Director Spotlight questions here!
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Deb Hudelson, Traffic Coordinator – WZZM-TV “Deb is the glue that holds our sales operation together. She works diligently, independently, and with a certain pride. These qualities roll up to a strong feeling of gratitude that Deb is on our team. Thank you Deb!” -Dan Baylog |
 Lori Olson, Karina Johnson & Autumn Gurden. |
Lori Olson, Traffic Manager – WFQX-TV Karina Johnson & Autumn Gurden, Traffic Coordinators “Lori and her team do an amazing job day in and day out in a professional manner. They are the control center, working with multiple departments and ensuring we maximize revenue while providing the best exposure for our clients. These ladies rock!!” -Josh Trust |
 Martha VanCamp |
Martha VanCamp, Client Service & Business Manager – WGRT-FM
“Martha is the hardest working Client Service & Business Manager you’ll ever meet! She has had many roles at the station since she joined the team in 1997, and she is the backbone of the office, taking care of the many duties no one else realizes need to get done every day. Martha has handled the traffic and billing responsibilities for 24 years at WGRT. She strives for excellence in everything she does and demonstrates a commitment to high quality customer service. Martha will retire in April of 2022 and is now in the process of training her replacement. She will be missed!” |
 Angela Winkler |
Angela Winkler, Traffic Coordinator – WILX-TV
“Traffic is the glue that holds the station together! Apologies to the other stations, but I’m confident we have the best Traffic Manager in the state of Michigan. Angela’s positive attitude, love of her job, attention to detail and accuracy not only saves the station money because she rarely makes mistakes, but she also makes the station money by maximizing every second of our inventory. And no, she’s not available! Thank you Angela, we appreciate you and wish you Happy Traffic Directors Day.” |
 Top: Wendy Sobeck and Tina Martin with Darius Rucker. Bottom: Maddie Lundy in front of an entourage of Marines! |
Wendy Sobeck, Traffic Director – Midwestern Broadcasting Company Tina Martin, Traffic Director Maddie Lundy, Traffic Director “The strength of our Company has everything to do with the hard work, dedication, and skills that Wendy, Tina and Maddie provide for us. They truly are the center Hub, around which everything, from programming to sales to management, flows. We are very appreciative, and also very lucky, to have these 3 ladies overseeing our (10) northern Michigan radio stations!” -Chris Warren |
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Lexy Skirvin, Traffic Manager – WQTX-FM, WWDK-FM, WJXQ-FM, WLMI-FM “MWC Lansing would absolutely fall to pieces if it wasn’t for Lexy. Not only does Lexy handle all things traffic for our 4 FM stations, she is also our Business Manager and Office Manager. She wears so many hats, she would need 5 coat racks to hold them all. Her work ethic is impeccable and her willingness to help out if you’re in a jam, is something you can always count on. She never complains, even when there are plenty of things she could grouse about… and she is always willing to listen, even if her work load is crazy – which it is, most days.We love Lexy and pray we never lose her. She IS the glue that holds this place together!” -Mark Jaycox |
 Katie Fralick |
Katie Fralick, Traffic Director – Mid-West Family Southwest Michigan
“Katie is an absolute godsend to our staff. She is truly an expert at her job, and works tirelessly for the success of our clients and our entire operation. During a recent outage of service, she sprung in to action with a plan that was so flawless, our clients and our staff never knew anything was different or being done by hand. We love Katie! Thank you for all you do!” |
 Patty Vandenberg |
Patty Vandenberg, Traffic Director – WHTC-AM, WYVN-FM, WTVB-AM
“Patty is celebrating her 42nd year at the station (WHTC/WYVN) this month. She’s really the person who runs the place. She knows where everything is and who everyone is. In addition to her duties in Holland which include running the front desk, hosting a daily 5 minute radio show, posting updates to the station webpages and doing traffic, she also does traffic for our Coldwater station WTVB. Information about Patty and her 40th anniversary with the station in 2019 can be found at https://whtc.com/2019/10/17/happy-40th-anniversary-patty-vandenberg/.” |
 Shelly Ott |
Shelly Ott, Traffic Assistant – WCSR-AM, WCSR-FM “Shelly is positive, outgoing, and being new to traffic, she’s willing to go with the flow when facing all the quirks of learning the business.” -Julie Morgan |
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Judy Galloway, Traffic Manager – WOMC-FM
“Thanks Judy for your amazing work on WOMC. Always a positive attitude when dealing with this high demand station!” |
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Jessica Shaw, Traffic Manager/Sports Play By Play – WXYT-FM
“Jessica handles all 4 play-by-play teams. Picking up Detroit Lions play by Play this year made her job that much more complicated. Everything has run flawlessly. Thanks Jessica!” |
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Dawn Griessel, Traffic Manager – WWJ-AM
“Thank you Dawn for always maximizing the WWJ log. Breaking news and sports make this a difficult log to optimize. Always done to perfection!” |
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Chris Apap, Traffic Manager – WXYT-AM, WXYT-FM
“Chris is a master at running 97.1 The Ticket. High demand station with game times changing daily makes for a very complex log. Thanks Chris for everything.” |
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Donna Autry, Traffic Manager – WWJ-AM, WXYT-AM, WXYT-FM, WOMC-FM, WYCD-FM, WDZH-FM
“Donna is a terrific leader and always has a positive attitude. So appreciate what she does daily for our customers.” |
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Laurie Peters, Owner/Business Office Manager/Traffic – WCZY-FM, WMMI-AM “Laurie is one of the most detail oriented people we know. Not only does she handle many of the administrative duties at Latitude Media, she’s also the traffic director. Laurie has done traffic for over 25 years in radio. She understands the importance of building a log and how stop sets can make a station sound better. Traffic/billing has been her strength for along time, and who better to trust with the true insides of a radio station, than the owner. Laurie’s complete understanding even helps the sales staff perform better by helping with placement, contracts, collections, and by knowing the clients history over two decades.” -Bob Peters |
 Lindsey Averkamp |
Lindsey Averkamp – WUPM-FM “Lindsey makes what she does look so easy. From making sure all advertisers ads run when they are supposed to, to billing, to making sure the office runs smoothly. Lindsey also is the 2nd half of a male / female morning show! At WUPM Lindsey is more than traffic staff, she is truly the “traffic light” that keeps all of us from crashing into each other. We all sometimes make fun of her because of all of her spread sheets, including her spread sheet on the location of all of her spread sheets, but we all know without her organizational skills and her ability to juggle multiple things at one time we wouldn’t be able to operate as smoothly as we do.” -Jesse Baroka |
 Kim Davis |
Kim Davis, Sales Operations Manager – WWJ-TV, WKBD-TV
“As a seasoned veteran of our two stations, Kim not only knows programs and rates, but has a vast knowledge of individual clients; remembering their specific requirements and buying patterns. This makes her invaluable as yet another pair of eyes looking out for us and our clients. We are lucky to have her.” |
 Elaine Himmel |
Elaine Himmel, Senior Manager Traffic Hub – WXYZ-TV, WXMI-TV, WSYM-TV
“Elaine is the glue for the Detroit Traffic Hub at Scripps. She manages a terrific team of Log Editors and helps Stations stay in process, maximize revenue, and create synergies across the board. |
 Sande Raines, Leslie Leverett |
Sande Raines & Leslie Leverett, Traffic Directors – WDMK-FM, WMGC-FM, WRIF-FM, WCSX-FM “Sande & Leslie are tremendous assets to our Team! They are dedicated, reliable, flexible, and share our culture of “YES!” when working with colleagues in Sales, Production, On-Air, and throughout our facility. When Covid first closed our offices, Sanes and Leslie quickly adapted to working remotely and never missed a beat. More recently, when our Traffic system vendor suffered a massive hack, they were on-point from the moment it occurred, working late nights and weekends to keep business on the air and our records in excellent shape.We’re fortunate to have both Sande and Leslie in these key roles with Beasley-Detroit. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to honor them on this state-wide platform.” -Mac Edwards |
 Mary Gallow |
Mary Garrow, Business Manager/Traffic – WHSB-FM, WHAK-FM, WWTH-FM “Mary is the ‘glue’ that holds us together. Great asset to our company, been employed for 25 years. We are truly blessed to have Mary a part of our team. Happy Traffic Directors Day, Mary! We appreciate all you do!” -Darrel Kelly |
 Michelle Arvanitis, Juli Yoder |
Michelle Arvanitis, Traffic Manager – WKHM-AM, WKHM-FM, WIBM-AM Juli Yoder, Traffic Coordinators – WCSR-AM, WCSR-FM “Michelle and Juli are both great Traffic Managers. They have both been longtime company employees who have a great deal of passion and energy for their respective positions with McKibbin Media Group. They are both tremendous employees who care about local radio in the Jackson and Hillsdale markets in Michigan. Congratulations to them both!” – Dennis Worden |