Broadcaster, Historian, Preservationist

Radio is theatre with a steady paycheck.  It’s not often that an offhanded remark from a stranger changes your life—but that’s exactly what happened to Cincinnati native Mike Martini, whose career in professional radio would span nearly four decades.

“I went to a career night in high school and met a guy from a radio station and he convinced me.  I loved being in plays and thought radio was pretty similar.” 

Several area colleges had a radio station, but Mike chose Xavier University.   He could have done so because his father was an alum, but Communication Arts department chairman “Fr Flynn is the reason I picked Xavier.”  

Mike didn’t jump into the college radio station, right away.  Instead, he landed an internship at WEBN-FM, the city’s wildly popular rock station, while also playing trombone in the university band.  During his final two years, he became a student volunteer announcer for WVXU.

After graduating in 1987 Mike accepted a part-time position with WRRM as newswriter and weekend overnight DJ, before he got a phone call from WVXU’s station operations manager.

“George Zahn offered me a job as host for NPR’s Morning Edition.   I had never done anything like it, but the position was fulltime and paid $12,000,” explained Mike.   “I was up 4:30am, in at 5:00, to write the news and prep for the 6-10am NPR program.  The mornings would fly by.”   

“Mike is the consumate professional. I always considered him a valued colleague,” said George.            

Mike used the opportunity, as an employee of the university, to earn a master’s degree in education, and would have achieved a second, in history, “but I never finished writing the thesis.”

He then used that degree to join the Xavier faculty, serving as a part time adjunct professor to teach Broadcasting Writing in its Electronic Media program.   And if that wasn’t enough, Mike married Suzanne, a fellow Musketeer and now family physician, and moved to Sunman, Indiana.   

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“We drew a one-hour circle around Cincinnati, when she was looking for a place to practice.  Together, we’ve raised four boys, the youngest now attending Miami University.

Of course, living that far away meant waking up at 3:00 a.m. every day for his Morning Edition shift.  After 11 years with ‘VXU, I had to tell Dr. King, the station’s general manager, that I just couldn’t keep it up. To my surprise, he said, “Okay—if you could design the perfect job, what would it be?’

“I’d like to work on documentaries,” I told him. “Maybe do something with the old radio shows.”

“Okay,” he said. “That’s your new job. You’ll also have to handle afternoon drive.”

Mike accepted on the spot.  And, for the next seven years, he played a pivotal role in producing and overseeing several acclaimed documentaries.

The station previously won a Peabody Award in 1994 for D-Day, Plus 50 Years.  

In 2002, with Mark Magistrelli, he co-produced "Cincinnati Radio: The Nation's Station, 1921-1941," an audio documentary detailing the formative years of radio in Cincinnati, spotlighting the rise of WLW as a broadcasting powerhouse. 

Mike was responsible for bringing Magistrelli back to Cincinnati and WVXU. 

“One of the first things Mike asked was whether I'd be willing to drop what I was doing in Cleveland television and take charge of this project,” reflected Magistrelli “Working with Mike on a history project is like working with a dogged professional investigative journalist: everything has to be confirmed by multiple sources!”

"It was the greatest experience in my professional life,” bragged Mike.  “Dr. King was really intent on winning another Peabody, so we almost had an open check book.   We had two rules.   We wanted a nationally known narrator, and we would conduct all interviews face-to-face. We hired movie critic Leonard Maltin to be narrator and recorded him at Capitol Records in Hollywood.  I got to travel the country and interview dozens of broadcast veterans.   I interviewed actor Eddie Albert while sitting on his back porch in Hollywood.   We flew to Vermont, and Florida, and drove through several Eastern states conducting interviews.”

Other notable documentaries.

• Cincinnati Radio: The War Years (1941–1945)

• Red Barber: From the Catbird Seat

• The Moon River Collection

• Let Me Entertain You:  Ruth Lyons Memoir    

While working on The Nation's Station, Martini and Magistrelli learned that recordings, photographs and other priceless items from the early years of radio and TV were vanishing at an alarming rate.

In 2001, Mike and Mark founded Media Heritage, a non-profit archive dedicated to the preservation, restoration, and archive of radio, film and media history in Cincinnati and beyond. 

“Mike's role as President of Media Heritage has been distinguished by his unfailing patience, diplomacy and ability to work effectively with an all-volunteer staff,” said Mark. “There's no doubt that Mike's "soft skills" and fiscal prudence have enabled the organization to survive and flourish for over a quarter century.”  

“Basically, we’re just trying to preserve this stuff,” explained Mike. “We have acquired recordings, scripts, contracts, promotional materials and over 10,000 vinyl and acetate discs from producer and syndication pioneer Frederic Ziv.”

Over time people donated other items — several studio TV cameras, Uncle Al’s coat and tie, Ruth Lyons bouquet. and more.

“Mike is a true museum rat and history lover and documentarian,” is how George describes his good friend. 

“Mike and Media Heritage are unique treasures in this city,“ admitted John Kiesewetter, the Cincinnati authority on TV, broadcasting and media.  “(Mike) has been one of my main go-to guys for Cincinnati broadcasting history for most of my 40 years.”

Media Heritage now calls the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in West Chester OH its home.

In 2011, Mike found time to produce the book Cincinnati Radio (Arcadia Press) which is full of photos representing the first fifty years of radio broadcasting in Cincinnati

Today, he’s back working alongside George Zahn and Mark Magistrelli.   Mike and Mark co-host "The Big Broadcast," a weekly three-hour deep dive into old time radio and broadcast history.  

In the words of veteran journalist and TV personality Nick Clooney, Big Broadcast is “an amalgam of comedy, music and drama that, in entertainment terms, blows away anything on radio!” 

George, today WMKV’s station manager, is lucky to have Mike working alongside.  

“Mike is a true “man for others.  When things need to get done, Mike jumps in, whether it’s helping with a project or an errand, or the mighty and thankless task of preserving Cincinnati history,”  

“George has been supervisor/boss for over forty years,” Mike chuckled.   

In his six decades, Mike Martini, veteran radio broadcaster, historian, and preservationist whose career has been deeply intertwined with Cincinnati's rich broadcast heritage, has built not only a legacy of preservation but also a community of listeners who share his love of radio.