VOA Museum to Host Fundraiser on Sept. 21

Cincinnati Radio’s Mike Martini to Emcee National VOA Museum of Broadcasting’s Sept. 21 Fundraiser

Fourth annual fundraiser aims to level first floor for patron accessibility

Cincinnati radio and TV broadcast historian Mike Martini will emcee the Saturday, Sept. 21 fundraiser for the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in West Chester.

The VOA museum will host “Celebrating 75 Years of VOA Bethany Station” from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at the museum at 8070 Tylersville Road in West Chester.

Martini is a 30-year, award-winning radio Cincinnati journalist and radio producer. He is also president and co-founder of the Media Heritage Collection at the VOA museum and a producer at WMKV-FM.

An independent voice talent who has voiced spots for both public and commercial, radio and television, clients, Martini is a sought-after public speaker who speaks to dozens of community groups each year. He and Mark Magistrelli, an Emmy-winning producer and writer of documentaries, saved much of Cincinnati radio and TV’s broadcast history when they worked together for WVXU-FM in the 1990s. In 2000, the men formed the Media Heritage, Inc., a not-for-profit archive of Cincinnati broadcast history.

Media Heritage’s collection includes the radio archives of the Frederic W. Ziv Company, the world’s largest syndicator of radio and television in the 1940s and 1950s.

Martini is a former adjunct professor of broadcast writing at Xavier University, has written numerous magazine articles and conducted more than 130 oral history interviews. He’s the author of the book, Cincinnati Radio (Arcadia Publishing, 2011), a photographic record of the first 50 years of Cincinnati radio.

“Mike is the consummate radio professional blessed with a golden voice,” said Jack Dominic, VOA museum executive director. “He’s an expert on Cincinnati radio and TV history and is highly entertaining, especially during his talks on Powel Crosley, Jr., and radio sound effects. Greater Cincinnati should be eternally grateful to him and Mark Magistrelli for giving modern-day audiences the chance to hear old-time radio classics like ‘Fibber McGee and Molly,’ ‘Burns and Allen,’ and ‘The Great Gildersleeve.’”

Martini re-broadcasts many of the Golden Age of Radio’s shows weekdays at 11 a.m. on WMKV’s (89.9 FM) “Theater of the Mind.” program. He was awarded the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists “Best Producer Award in 2009; 2010; 2011; 2012; and 2014.

“Celebrating 75 Years of VOA Bethany Station” will include dinner-by-the-bite, cocktails, wine and Cincinnati Liars Lager beer, along with museum tours and a friendly table-to-table Trivial Pursuit game. Funds raised from raffles and silent auction items will help make the Bethany Station museum building accessible for people of all abilities.

Event sponsors include: Platinum Sponsor Dillard’s; Gold Sponsor Sebaly, Shillito & Dyer and Gary and Dee Dee West; and Silver Sponsors Emery Federal Credit Union; Larry and Sandy Brueshaber; Mr. Mechanic; Oak Tree Communications; Union Centre Boulevard Merchants Association; Greg and Diane Stevens; Chris and Sandie Wunnenberg; and Voice of America Centre.

Fundraiser tickets are $125 per person and $250 per couple until September 1, then $150 per person and $300 per couple afterward. Cash bar, with two drink tickets per person provided. Dress is business casual.

To purchase tickets, visit Eventbrite at http://bit.ly/2MsGITX; email Dominic at admin@voamuseum.org or call the museum at (513) 777-0027 to become an event sponsor.