Former WKYC gm Brooke Spectorsky has retired.
Spectorsky started his career at the Cleveland NBC affiliate as a producer director in 1969. He had been gm at the station for 17 years and was bumped up to svp at Gannett in December after Micki Byrnes took over.
According to the Plain Dealer, about 100 people said goodbye to Spectorsky in the Cleveland NBC affiliate’s main studio. “Among them were the CEO and top executives of station owner Gannett, Mayor Frank Jackson and Paul Dolan, CEO of the Cleveland Indians, with whom Spectorsky’s stations had long relationships.”
A who’s who of network, syndication and TV executives and personalities, including NBC anchor Lester Holt to the Dos Equis beer pitchman “The Most Interesting Man in the World” delivered personal greetings on the impressive video that was shown.
Comic Will Ferrell made repeated appearances in the production. At one point he quipped about Spectorsky, “I found your work to be shoddy.”
Spectorsky spoke near the end of the program. He had been visibly moved by the tribute. He said he was expecting something low key and quieter.
Spectorsky stepped aside as TV3’s president and general manager in December, when his wife, Micki Byrnes, took over. He became senior vice president for Gannett Broadcasting, responsible for syndicated programming and overseeing stations from Minnesota to Maine.
He made Channel 3 the first local station in digital broadcasting in 1999, and moved the station in 2001 from East Sixth Street to its $30 million home on Lakeside Avenue at East 13th Street.
Spectorsky is expected to spend a lot of time on the 10-acre farm that he and Byrnes own in Russell Township in Geauga County. At least, that is what a lot of people are expecting. The farm is called Spec Acres, and one gift Thursday was customized coveralls with the name of the farm embroidered on it.