Tim Kiska is a longtime Detroit newsman, professor of journalism, and author of From Soupy to Nuts: A History of Detroit Television. He joined the University of Michigan - Dearborn in 2001 after a three-decades-long career at the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News. He also works as a reporter and producer at WWJ-AM.
"A Newscast for the Masses contains a great deal of never-before-assembled information that will prove interesting to Detroit local history buffs and students of broadcast journalism. Kiska has exhausted all available data and added to it with the many interviews he has conducted himself. The people who lived it are telling the story.""--Jane Briggs-Bunting ""director and professor of journalism at the Michigan State University School of Journalism "" From the very first broadcast of WWDT, Kiska gives the reader an inside view of Detroit television and its personalities, both those in front of the camera and those who worked on the business and financial end of the business. Kiska explores the tradition from radio news to television news, as well as the role newspapers played in the development of Detroit television, especially the impact that the 1967 newspaper strike had on the way news and information was transmitted to Detroit.""--Grosse Pointe Times Newscast provides an excellent overview of four decades of Detroit television journalism, based in significant part on extensive interviews Kiska conducted with local news anchors, reporters, and station executives. Nostalgia enthusiasts will enjoy the attention Kiska gives to the personalities of the city's television new business. As a case study of the four-decade trend in Detroit television journalism, it is a solid contribution to local history.""--Michigan Historical Review Tim Kiska provides a compelling historical account of broadcast journalism from one of the cradles of local television news. The dimensions, horizons, and personalities that shaped TV news in Detroit are brought to life and Detroit is established as a starting point for the focus groups and consultants that today make TV news a 'mass audience' function. The book offers vital insights on the emergence of modern television news.""--Craig Allen ""associate professor and coordinator of broadcast news at Arizona State University "" Tim Kiska tells the national story of the development of television news through the lens of what happened in Detroit at local stations. He has put it all into a readable, entertaining context that identifies the heroes and villains. The book is a valuable resource for students of media history.""--Ben Burns ""former executive editor of the Detroit News, director of the Wayne State University journalism program, and co-author of Michigan Media Law """