Felicia Middlebrooks (born May 29, 1957) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

radio news broadcaster. She was the morning-drive

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

of WBBM Newsradio in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, along with Pat Cassidy. Their morning show was rated No. 1 in the morning daypart in Chicago. Middlebrooks has announced she is leaving WBBM effective May 29, 2020 to work at her own company, Saltshaker Productions.

Biography

Felicia Middlebrooks was born in

Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the ...

. She graduated from West Side High School and Purdue University Calumet earning a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communications in 1982 and an MBA in 2014, where she also takes on the role as a professor for broadcast news. She worked as a steelworker in northwest

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

to finance her undergrad education. Her previous radio stations were

WBAA WBAA (920 AM) and WBAA-FM (101.3 FM) are two non-commercial educational radio stations licensed to West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, both serving the Lafayette metro area with public radio formats. WBAA's format is exclusively news- ...

, WJOB,

WGVE WGVE-FM is an FM high school radio station broadcasting on 88.7 MHz in Gary, Indiana. It is owned and operated by Gary Community School Corporation. The station airs local news, music, and limited NPR programming, as well as high school and ...

, and

WLTH WLTH (1370 AM) is a radio station in Gary, Indiana east of the Chicago metropolitan area. It is owned by Michilliana Broadcasting, LLC. The station's current format is African-American Talk Radio. Notable radio alumni of WLTH include Steve King ...

before coming to Chicago. Felicia broke barriers in 1984 when she became the first woman and first African American in the nation to co-anchor mornings for CBS Radio. She has won numerous awards for leadership and reporting (domestic and global) including the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in News, the Associated Press “Best Reporter Award” and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Sigma Delta Chi Society of Professional Journalists/Chicago Headline Club. Middlebrooks is Principal of Saltshaker Productions LLC, with offices in Chicago and Los Angeles. Her first documentary film, “Somebody’s Child: The Redemption of Rwanda” won first place for “Best Documentary Short” in the 2005 New York International Film & Video Festival. Felicia is also a published author. She founded the non-profit "Hollywood Comes to Chicago" to help aspiring young screenwriters in the Midwest. She serves on the Board of Directors for three non-profit organizations: “Hands of Hope”, “WINGS: Women in Need Growing Stronger”, and “Children’s Home and Aid Society” (CHASI).

Other morning co-anchors

Here is a list of the news co-anchors who have worked with Felicia Middlebrooks since she started in 1984: * 1984-1998 & 2008-2010: John Hultman * 1998-2000: Ken Herrera * 2000-2008 & 2010-2020: Pat Cassidy

Selected publications

A partial list of books of which Middlebrooks was an author: * ''Called'' (co-authored by

Lisa D. Jefferson United Airlines Flight 93 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight that was hijacked by four al-Qaeda attackers aboard the plane on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The plane eventually crashed in S ...

Moody Publishing Moody Bible Institute (MBI) is a private evangelical Christian Bible college founded in the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois, US by evangelist and businessman Dwight Lyman Moody in 1886. Historically, MBI has maintained positions that have i ...

) * ''Souls of My Sisters'' (

Kensington Publishing Kensington Publishing Corp. is an American, New York-based publishing house founded in 1974 by Walter Zacharius (1923–2011)Grimes, William"Walter Zacharius, Romance Publisher, Dies at 87,"''New York Times'' (MARCH 7, 2011). and Roberta Bender ...

)

References

External links

Felicia Middlebrooks
- WBBM 780's website
Biography
- The HistoryMakers American radio news anchors Radio personalities from Chicago People from Gary, Indiana Purdue University alumni 1957 births Living people African-American radio personalities 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people {{US-radio-bio-stub