Is It Mack or John Mackin Ade

 

I’ve receive a bunch of emails on “who the hell is John Mackin Ade?”, and “is your name John or Mack".

John Mackin Ade

My name is not Mack Ade. It is John Mackin Ade. I chose the nickname of ‘Mack’ when I became a sportswriter 10 years ago for a local newspaper.

A little history.

I came out of Ozone Park after my mother dies when I was six, and my father died when I was 13 (brother 16). I went to school, then washed dishes at Mabee's Charcoal Broil, on Atlantic Ave.,  until 11pm, and then went to bed. That was life until I joined the Air Force when I was 17 (1964-1968).

I began working in the radio industry in 1970 for Pro Times Sales, NYC, a national sales representative company. It was our job to sell commercials to advertising agencies for radio stations that our company represented.

I left Pro Time to join Katz Radio, the largest radio representative field in the business and worked there until 1975. I then became General Sales Manager for. ‘The Mellow Sound’, 98.7FM, WKTU, New York. I was promoted to Assistant General Manager in 1978 (format change to “Disco 92”) until 1980.

I then became General Sales Manger of WTAE/WXKX, Pittsburgh (1980-1982), VP and General Manager of KLUV-FM, Dallas (1982-1984), and General Sales Manager of WIP-AM, Philadelphia (1984).

In late 1984 I became President of Specter Broadcast, a company owned by myself, a lawyer, a dentist, and his spouse. We went on to own radio stations licensed to Beaufort, South Carolina, and Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. We went ‘under’ in 1989 and I became VP of General Electric and General Manager of KEYI/KNOW, Austin, Texas.

I successfully sold those stations to Clear Channel in 1991, returned to Dallas for six months to help a friend-owner at KLUV-FM radio, and became General Manager of WIXV/WBMQ, in Savannah, Georgia, from 1992-1997. The stations were eventually sold to Cumulus Broadcasting and I became Senior Vice president of National Sales for Capstar Broadcasting.

Capstar was spun into Clear Channel Broadcasting and I remained working with the old CEO, who had formed NextMedia. I worked as a trustee for them in both Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Panama City, Florida.

I then had a low blood sugar, causing me to faint and slam my head into my dining room table. My wife found me hours later and I was sent to Candler Hospital with both inter-cranial bleeding and brain swelling. I lost two years of my short term memory and have continued to struggle in that area.

Doctors told me that I would have trouble typing, reading, spelling, etc. and my symptoms would be similar to early-onset Alzheimer’s. I think he is right.

I started reading more. Then I started writing. I wrote five novels, none of which were published. The content wasn’t as important as the act of writing them. I was trying to keep my brain alive.

My wife had just accepted a contract assignment as a food writer at our local newspaper. I walked in there and convinced the editor that they needed someone to cover the local high schools in sports. We agreed on $50 a page.  My name was John until the day I walked out of that office. It then became ‘Mack'

I added the duties of 'beat reporter' for Morris Communications in 2007 and covered the Savannah Sand Gnats for their newspapers in Hardeeville and Bluffton, South Carolina, neighboring counties to Savannah, Georgia. I wrote a weekly full page spread on the Sand Gnats for three years, but then chose to resign that position. I continue to have press passes, as a blogger, for both Savannah and the St. Lucie Mets

I now live in Hardeeville with my bride of 42-years. I write for Mack's Mets and continue to help local inner city high schoolers obtain scholarship money to further their education. To date, I have seven players who have received "rides" because of work done my myself, their coaches, their teachers, and their parents. Oh yeah, they did a little too :)

I made a lot of money in my life. Like many of you, I lost more . Tonight's a big night for me. My local high school, Ridgeland-Hardeeville, opens their football season against rival Bluffton High School. There are seven players left on that team that I used to write about and I will be standing next to the head coach, as his guest, for the game.