Grant Hudson – Motor City Radio Flashbacks

— GRANT HUDSON REMEMBERED —

DECEMBER 16, 2020

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The below post is courtesy of Amy Confer — January 6, 2020:

Tough to report we lost legendary 20/20 newsman Grant Hudson (Jim Reese) to cancer on Dec. 16. This tribute is by his former mate Amy Confer:

“ I wasn’t sure how else to get this out to people who might want to know, so . . . Jim passed away December 16 after a very lengthy battle with cancer.

James (Jim) Raymond Reese III was born 4/4/44 in Hagerstown, MD. He always liked the symmetry of that. He was the son of a divorced fundamentalist preacher and a home maker. He lived in various small towns in MD, VA and PA growing up. He loved the time he got to spend on South Mountain, PA and remembered fondly having the entire mountain to explore and the freedom to do so. It will come as no surprise to anyone who knew him that Jim hated school, not because he wasn’t an avid learner, he was, but because he hated authority and ‘having’ to do anything.

Jim did his first radio gig at 15 on one of his dad’s radio stations and, yes, according to him, he had that voice even then. He was very nearly continually on the air from then until his death at 76.

Grant Charles Hudson was ‘born’ in early 1971 in the newsroom at CKLW when news director Byron MacGregor yelled, ‘Try using Brent’ just as Jim went in to read the news having only decided on using “Hudson” as his last name. Grant Hudson it was when he misheard.

He was a rock n roll jock (WVAM), a country announcer (CKLW FM – yep), station manager (WNOE in New Orleans), a station owner (WJRB in Bradenton), but most of all, he was a newsman. His career as one of the Big 8 newsmen is legendary, but he was also on drive time at WWJ with Joe Donovan, WCAR, WFLA, WSRQ, WOWO and many other stations.

It was Grant, not Byron MacGregor, who first read The Americans (by Gordon Sinclair) on the air at CKLW. Unfortunately, Grant was an American, so when Westbound Records asked for it to be recorded, they asked Byron to do it. It went on to sell 3.5 million copies.

One of his favorite stories about that time was when he did strident, in your face news for CKLW as Grant Hudson, would get off his shift, drive to the CBC affiliate where he would be introduced, ‘And now, news reader, James Reese,’ all somber and straight forward. The station manager for the CBC affiliate would sometimes rail about those awful people at CKLW, ruining the news . . . especially that Grant Hudson.

Jim was a voracious reader and had a keen and passionate mind. He started, but never finished, a book on how ancient Sumerian and Egyptian texts seemed to reveal an even more ancient, alien even, civilization. His politics were, as he would say, ‘Just to the right of Atilla the Hun,’ being perhaps even further right than the average far right libertarian. He was happiest when he could sit in a chair with a dog or two in his lap, a cup of coffee by his side and read.

Both Jim and Grant could strike up a conversation with anyone at any time for any or no reason. After a 30 minute phone call one day, I asked who he was talking to and he said, ‘I don’t know, it was a wrong number, but they were calling from New Orleans.’

Jim is survived by daughter Tiffany, grandson James, brother David, sister Carol and several half siblings. He is preceded in death by his son James (Jimbo), ex-wife Karen and both parents.

And I believe he would have loved the symmetry of dying in 2020.”

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(Courtesy of CKLW Facebook Page. Posted on January 6, 2021)