Michael Stone (born December 29, 1958) is an on-air host for ''97.1 The Ticket''
WXYT-FM.
He is the former host of the ''Stoney and Wojo'' radio show on
WDFN in
Detroit, Michigan until it was canceled on January 20, 2009. He was a blogger and chat host on
mlive.com until signing with 97.1 in December 2009. Stone also appears weekly on
WXYZ-TV's Sunday night sports newscast to offer his editorial opinion on the latest sports issues.
Stone began his sports journalism career as a television producer for
The George Michael Sports Machine
''The George Michael Sports Machine'' is a syndicated, sports-related American television program which was launched in 1984. The show aired weekends, usually on Sunday nights, and originated from WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., one of NBC's owned an ...
in
Washington, D.C. He attended
American University
The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...
and worked at
WRC-TV for
George Michael
George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling musici ...
after graduating. He came to Detroit to work as the sports producer for
WDIV-TV. He was an original on-air personality of WDFN when it changed its format to all sports on July 11, 1994. He first worked with ''
Detroit News'' reporter
Rob Parker. Beginning in the late 1990s, he partnered with ''
Detroit News''
columnist
A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...
Bob Wojnowski. Prior to joining
WXYT-FM, Stone worked with
Detroit Free Press columnist
Mitch Albom on
The Sunday Sports Albom, Albom's sports talk radio show which at that time was being broadcast on
WLLZ, a now defunct Detroit FM rock station. Personally, Stone is
Jewish and married to Cyndi, an
occupational therapist, and has twin daughters, Jessica and Marissa. They live in
West Bloomfield, Michigan. He is a dedicated
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...
fan.
The ''Stoney and Wojo'' show
The ''Stoney and Wojo'' show was a three-hour radio
broadcast
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
that included listener call-in segments, regular guests, and
current affairs Current affairs may refer to:
News
* Current Affairs (magazine), ''Current Affairs'' (magazine) a bimonthly magazine of culture and politics.
* Current affairs (news format): a genre of broadcast journalism
* Current Affairs, former name for Behi ...
talk slanted towards the Detroit and
Michigan sports fan. The tone of ''Stoney and Wojo'' was light-hearted, with Stone playing straight man to Wojo's more clownish comments. The heart of the show was sports and the breaking news of the Detroit sports market was paramount. Included were interviews, where the professional journalism strengths of both Stone and Wojnowski come to the fore. Occasionally, political news was featured: Governor
Jennifer Granholm appeared several times, for example.
Stone had a distinctive, entertaining and knowledgeable on-air presence that came to represent WDFN and the Detroit sports market. He often appeared on national media outlets to discuss Detroit sports events, such as the
Pacers–Pistons brawl. He had been a guest several times on the nationally syndicated
Jim Rome Show. Additionally, on July 13, 2007 Stoney and Wojo filled in as hosts for
Rome's show.
Stoney and Wojo conducted an annual 28-hour radiothon in support of research for a cure of
leukemia and
lymphoma. The event was started when Sabrina Black, WDFN update reporter, was diagnosed with lymphoma, and continued after her long battle with the disease lead to her death in 2006. It was typically held in a
Metro Detroit restaurant and includes many regular guest appearances including
Tony Dungy and
Joe Dumars
Joe Dumars III ( ; born May 24, 1963) is an American professional basketball executive and former player who is the executive vice president and head of basketball operations of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He could play either shoo ...
, among many others.
In August 2009, rumors of a revived
WDFN live local sports talk line up surfaced; however, in September Stoney and Wojo's time slot was filled by Matt Shepard and Drew Sharp.
In January 2010 he was listed as a possible replacement to Jay Towers on the 97.1 The Ticket Morning show.
References
External links
*
''Sabrina Black Fund''for research in Leukemia and Lymphoma.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Mike
American sports radio personalities
Radio personalities from Detroit
Radio personalities from Philadelphia
20th-century American Jews
1958 births
Living people
People from West Bloomfield, Michigan
21st-century American Jews