Mike Ahern
inducted 2008
by
Howard Caldwell
Both of us grew up in Indianapolis, both of us chose to remain in our hometown, both of us enjoyed what we were doing, and both of us in our youthful years used to do play-by-play phantom baseball broadcasts. Mike’s microphone was a rolled up magazine, mine was a bedpost in my bedroom.
Periodically, our paths would cross during our professional careers. I got a close-up look at Mike as a member of a “newscast” committee that for several years created a “wild and crazy newscast” for the Indianapolis Press Club’s annual Gridiron Dinner. All local TV stations were represented, but Ahern was the “point” man. His creativeness, wisdom, and humor were all vital to producing this effort.
Long before he began his thirty-seven-year news
anchor career, his world was focused on a near
north side home on Ruckle Street complete with
a basketball goal mounted on the garage. News
and radio were already creeping into his life. He
had a newspaper route (his first experience in
delivering news). He also became an avid radio
listener. His local favorites were disc jockey
Reid “Chuckles” Chapman and Luke Walton’s
play-by-play description of Indianapolis Indians
games. Both those gentlemen were on WISH
radio, the station that added more television to
the Indianapolis market by 1954 and hired Mike
much later.
The youngster on Ruckle Street had no problem
figuring out what he wanted to do in life. He had
decided that by the time he was in the fifth grade. “My long-suffering parents indulged my behavior
and finally caved in and bought me a Voice of
Music tape recorder, so I would have some record
ofmy bedroom broadcasts,” Ahern recalled.
High school days took place at Cathedral. He’s
modest about his accomplishments, calling them “uneventful.” He played on the reserve baseball
team, performed in some school theater productions,
and did all right academically. It was at Cathedral where he discovered he enjoyed debating
contests. The one that stands out the most in
his memory was a debate involving the United
Nations. He and a good friend took opposing positions.
No other students participated. The teenagers
decided not to mention that to their teacher,
proudly reporting that they had finished first and
second. Ahern now admits he was second
Significant accomplishments really began to take
hold when Mike enrolled at the University of
Notre Dame with a major in communication arts.
At that time, courses were primarily about print
journalism, with broadcast training limited to two
classes. Ahern credits a Professor Semens for
helping him develop writing skills good enough to be published in campus literary magazines. The significance of this would surface later. Ahern’s interest, however, continued to be in broadcasting. He handled sports on the student radio station and eventually became program
director. He also was favorably recognized by the university, becoming a member of the prestigious Blue Circle Society.
During his freshman year, on spring break, Mike
was back in Indianapolis and dropped off tapes
of student sportscasts to several radio stations.
WIRE’s Program Director Donald Bruce, who
later became a congressman, was impressed and
offered him summer employment. That summer
Ahern substituted for disc jockeys, did some
rip-and-read newscasts, and tackled anything else
that was available for $40 a week. That took care
of summers until he graduated and was offered a
full-time job. Luckily for him he was teamed up
with legendary personality Wally Nehrling and
that’s when his writing skills began paying off.
He authored brief essays for morning newscasts
that caught the attention of Eugene Pulliam,
owner of the station and of the Indianapolis Star
and News. Pulliam invited him to be a columnist
for the Sunday Star. Eventually, Indianapolis
500 race broadcast veteran Sid Collins issued
another invitation—membership on the big
races’s Speedway Radio Network that was heard
throughout the United States and in many other
countries as well. Mike was just one year into his broadcast career
when he was contacted by Collins. He had been
doing high school basketball play-by-play for
WIRE, and that’s when Collins decided Mike
would be a good fit for his 500 radio team.
Invitations just didn’t stop coming. Another one
came from Channel 8 News Director Bob Hoyt.
Mike’s long and successful career started there
on February 6, 1967. He also ended up married
to a talented vocalist-actress who he met at her
brother’s wedding in Washington, D.C. Sherry
and Mike have been together for thirty-six years.
She has sung with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
and appeared at the Saint Louis Municipal Opera.
Sherry also starred in a number of productions locally
until their son, Kevin, was born. Kevin now
is living in Los Angeles, where he is pursuing a
musical career.
Mike Ahern has a long list of honors that not
only recognize his journalistic and presentation
skills but also have come because of his ability to
write and to participate in nonprofit community
events. He received the city’s highly regarded
Caspar award for coverage of the 1978 blizzard
that consumed sixty-seven hours of continuous
weather coverage. Other Caspars were presented
to him for hosting and producing a news magazine
program, 30 Minutes.
More recognition has come from the Indianapolis
Press Club. This includes best documentary,
best enterprise feature, and best historical feature
awards. Mike also is known for writing broadcast
specials such as Another Side of Mike Ahern,
based on published collections of his prose and
poetry. Readers of both Indianapolis Woman and
Indianapolis Monthly have been Ahern fans. They
named him “Best News Anchor” for ten consecutive
years. Mike’s love of laughter was publicized
when he teamed up a few years ago with local
broadcaster, Reid Duffy, for a humorous novel
about television news, titled Festerwood at Five.
Mike Ahern’s last newscast for Channel 8 was
December 1, 2004. Now retired, the Indiana Journalism
Hall of Fame board of trustees is highly
pleased to welcome him into the Hall of Fame’s
class of 2008.