Anyone in the Windsor area probably knows the name Bernie Smilovitz. He's been a sportscasting fixture in Motown for 40 years - minus one very unhappy departure to WCBS-TV in New York, where he was fired. It didn't take him long to get back to his old stomping ground - WDIV, and he never left again. 

Until now. After cutbacks and a buyout, Smilovitz exits after an incredible four decades. His final broadcast comes Monday. 

The story linked below is amazing, written by the great Mitch Albom. He recounts how a completely inexperienced Smilovitz used what can only be called huge chutzpah to land his first job, when most bosses would have thrown him out of their office.

And how his early sojourns on Detroit TV weren't exactly easy. 

“During that first year, my wife, Donna, had to be hospitalized for seven weeks while she was pregnant,” Smilovitz recalls. “One day I was sitting in the hospital room and I opened the Free Press and there’s an article that says, ‘Get Smilovitz out of town! He’s one of the worst things that’s ever happened to us.’
 
“My wife looked over and said, ‘Is there anything new in the paper?’ And I closed it and said, ‘No, no, nothing.”

The article is worth a read even if you've never seen him - it's an amazing story of determination and resilience in an industry that doesn't always accommodate both. 

Bernie Smilovitz, after a career of highlights and hard work, signs off