Tuesday, 3/13, 10:45 a.m. --- Every month at 13WHAM the bulletin boards get a new piece of paper that recognize each employee's birthday that month and it also wishes a Happy Anniversary to those who began their employment at 13WHAM in that month.
March is just another typical month here at 13WHAM and it plainly illustrates why this has been such a successful team for five decades.
Most companies with this many employees are bound to have many months where a number of those workers are celebrating their first, second, or maybe third Anniversary with the company. This March at 13WHAM NOBODY is celebrating their first, second, or third year with the team.
The "baby" on the list (Jeffrey Knauss) works in sales and has been with 13WHAM for 4 years already. And get this, only ONE other employee celebrating a "13WHAM Anniversary" in March has been here less than 10 years! You know him well because you've been watching Evan Dawson's reports for 9 years; what were you doing in 2003 when he first signed on?
From there the Anniversary list is similar to one you would see most months on these bulletin boards. Four employees are working through their second decade with the team (Chris Tabor-12yrs, Brian Swereda-13yrs, Tammy Straubing-14yrs, & you've been watching Norma Holland smile and laugh for 16 years!)
This is weird, only two of our co-workers are celebrating 20+ years with 13WHAM in March, normally we have more past that milestone. Photographer Carl Shuba is in his 24th year of chasing news with a camera on his shoulder for 13WHAM, and Cathy Hughes (Sales) has been with us for 21 years.
What's not unusual is that we have two employees who joined us more than 30 years ago this month. Director Lee Sigelow and Audio Engineer extraordinaire Patrice Lockhart started at 13WHAM before I was even born! Lee and Patrice are two of the many 13WHAMers who everyday work to bring you the best newscast we can deliver and they've been doing just that for 33 and 35 years respectively.
That is 10 current employees who all began working for 13WHAM in the month of March.
They total 181 YEARS OF SERVICE TO 13WHAM and this community.
Something like that would normally surprise me, but I've been walking by these bulletin boards for five years and that's long enough to know that this is just A Typical Month Here At 13WHAM.
---Sean Carroll
