| The Detroit News
The late Jamie Samuelsen’s legacy officially has been forever preserved.
Samuelsen’s radio station, 97.1 The Ticket, announced Wednesday morning that it has named its Southfield studio after him. The studio now will be known as “The Jamie Samuelsen Studio.” Samuelsen died Aug. 1, after a 19-month battle with colon cancer. He was 48.
Samuelsen worked in the Metro Detroit sports media market for 25 years, working in radio, TV and print, and worked at 97.1 from 2012 until his death. He co-hosted shows with Bob Wojnowski and Mike Stone.
Stone made the announcement on air Wednesday.
“Jamie meant so much to our station and was a key part of our listeners lives,” said Debbie Kenyon, senior vice president and market manager for Entercom Detroit. “We want to honor him in a special way, not only as a great broadcaster, but an extraordinary person. We hope the renaming of the studio will serve as a way to keep his memory alive and add to his incredible legacy here in Detroit.”
On air with Stone for the announcement was Samuelsen’s wife Christy McDonald, as well as Wojnowski and Heather Park.
“Oh my gosh, what a wonderful, wonderful announcement,” McDonald said on 97.1. “Jamie loved you like family, and the listeners, too. It’s been a long two months. It feels like yesterday, but then it feels so long.
“The outpouring and the love that we still feel is great. And we still feel that he’s with us.”
During the final months of Samuelsen’s life, he worked from home, in a basement studio, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our bedroom is on the first floor and it’s right above where he would broadcast, so every morning I woke up at 6 a.m. to, ‘Good morning, Jamie and Stoney, 97.1 The Ticket,'” said McDonald, herself a media member, as an anchor at Detroit’s PBS affiliate. “Those are things that I wish I could hear just one more time.”
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McDonald thanked listeners for their continued outpouring of support, and Stone said the station still gets letters addressed to the family, offering condolences.
“We miss him so much,” Stone said.
Said McDonald: “I miss him every day.”
Meanwhile, McDonald said she will continue to advocating for early colonoscopy screenings. They often aren’t recommended until 50, but many, like Samuelsen, are diagnosed earlier — before insurance companies typically cover that. That will be a focus of McDonald’s advocacy work, she said.
Samuelsen, who had three children, went on the air the week of his death and strongly urged listeners to get screened, and Stone and Wojnowski said they have heard from many listeners that they’ve done just that.
McDonald said she had a colonoscopy in August.
“It was scary for me, too,” McDonald said. “If I can do it, you can do it.”
tpaul@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tonypaul1984