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Resident Spotlight: Mike Conrad

Published in 2024 Royal Oak Today Fourth Quarter


The musical checkmate ROHS broadcast teacher

By Mark H. Stowers

mike conrad royal oak michigan
Royal Oak resident and Livonia native Mike Conrad found his way to the broadcast classroom after working in the industry with WDET, WJR and other radio stations.

After several job changes, he loved the industry but had a frank discussion with his wife, Amy.

“One of those making-dinner-in-the-kitchen nights with my wife and we're talking about things and she said, ‘Well, go get a new job,’ and I said, ‘Well, I don't really have a marketable skill anymore.’ And she said, ‘Well, go get one.’”

Within three months, he was at Wayne State working on a master’s degree in teaching. But it wasn’t a smooth road to the classroom career change.

“I found myself out of work, with a small child and switching careers at 40,” he said. “It was a time. I actually got the job working here at Royal Oak while getting my master's.”

He had visited Royal Oak High School seeking his new career path.

“I met Dick Rockwell and I saw the facility they had here,” Conrad said. “And for the next couple of months, I traveled around and met a lot of people and visited schools and looked at their programs. And all I kept thinking about was Royal Oak High School's facility. I kept just thinking, that's the room I wanna be in. And then Dick retired and the job became available. I've been here 15 years.”

Along the way he was awarded The Wall Street Journal Courageous Leader Award, the Specs Howard Media Educator of the Year Award and has been recognized by DAFT, Digital Arts, Film, and Television, with their Educator of the Year Award.

“It's nice to feel appreciated by colleagues and peers but where I really get my rush and my passion is watching the kids compete,” Conrad said. “We've had nine student production awards including the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Student Production. That’s essentially a student Emmy. They've done great work here.”

Conrad also enjoys playing music.

“I've always loved music,” Conrad said. “I remember going back to the days of just listening to my sister's boombox in her bedroom and listening to Prince and the Romantics and just loving music.”

He picked up the guitar in his 20s and two decades later he’s in a band. First with Grooving Violation, a cover band, and then the same guys writing, recording and performing their own songs as Midnight Proof. Their initial album came out last summer and has enjoyed moderate success. The band is working on its sophomore follow-up. Conrad also enjoys playing with his son, Miles, who picked up the guitar early and has progressed quite well according to his dad.

Another passion is playing chess.

“I had a chess set in our house when I was a kid but it was a decorative item,” he said. “I knew how the pieces moved but that was it. It wasn't until I met my wife that I really started to learn how to play because her father played. He started showing me, and I started to really appreciate and love the game.”

That passion grew to helping create a high school chess club that expanded throughout the city, and is now known as the Royal Oak Chess Club. Conrad admins the club and can be reached at royaloakchessclub@gmail.com and on Facebook. Midnight Proof can be heard on streaming services and his daily news ROHS news broadcast, The Raven Report, can be found on YouTube.
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