“Mark was a terrific boss, mentor and friend. I learned so much from him,” I told Dar Danielson of Radio Iowa when he phoned recently, wanting my comment about longtime news broadcaster Mark Minnick’s death.
“He was funny and fun to be around. I have so many Mark Minnick stories. They say if you have a job you love, you never work a day in your life. That was true of my association with WOC Radio News (1997-2009), largely because of Mark Minnick.”
Following is a true story about the time Mark Minnick fired me. Well, kind of. It had to do with the Jack Shelley Award, Iowa Broadcast News Association’s (IBNA) highest honor.
The award is named for Jack Shelley, the former news director of WHO, Des Moines, and professor emeritus of journalism at Iowa State University. He died Sept. 15, 2010, at age 98.
Award nominees must have achieved a high degree of professionalism and dedication to broadcast news. They also must have demonstrated competence in the field and a record of cooperation with fellow broadcast journalists.
Mark was highly qualified. Some others and I wrote letters nominating Mark for the award in 2006.
“Mark’s pleasant voice, straightforward writing style and conversational delivery have been coming through radio speakers in Iowa for more than four decades,” I wrote in a two-page nomination letter. “He certainly has to be considered the dean of Iowa radio news broadcasters.
“Raised in Des Moines and educated at Drake University, Mark has made radio news his life’s work. Although Mark is currently the news director at WOC, he has done news at two other Quad Cities radio stations, a Moline TV station and radio stations in Oskaloosa, Des Moines and Colorado. He has also trained scores of upcoming news people over the years.”
Despite the best efforts of some of us to nominate him, Mark was not selected for the 2006 Shelley Award. Instead, the awards committee chose Cary J. Hahn of KGAN-TV, Cedar Rapids, another qualified candidate, to receive it.
Unfortunately, someone told Mark he had been nominated but not selected, and he was embarrassed. He knew that I was one of those who had written a letter of nomination because I admitted having done so when he asked.
“If you nominate me next year,” he said in all seriousness, “I’ll fire you.”
“OK,” I replied.
You guessed it. Without hesitation the following year, I once again nominated Mark for the Shelley Award. This time he won it. It was presented to him at the IBNA convention in Clear Lake. He was thrilled.
Mark and I always rode together and shared a hotel room at IBNA conventions. The morning after that convention we had just pulled onto Interstate 35 to head home when Mark, who was behind the wheel, spoke.
“Phil,” he said matter-of-factly.
“What?” I answered.
“You’re fired.”
“OK,” I said. We both smiled.
No more was ever said about that, and I continued to work for Mark.
