Atlanta Best News with Jean Ross and Rick Blalock
Weekday Mornings 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.
Jean Ross Bio
Jean Ross is the co-host of "Atlanta's Best News" with Rick Blalock on Atlanta\'s talk radio station, 1380-WAOK and also serves as News Director of WAOK-WVEE. Excited to be part of the rebirth of the historic WAOK, Ms. Ross plans to make WAOK Talk Radio as popular and important to the community as its predecessor.
Prior to joining WAOK-WVEE, Ms. Ross was a Public Relations Specialist for the National Advancement of Colored People, (NAACP) where she set up interviews and handled media for President & CEO Kweisi Mfume, and publicized the activities and policies of the NAACP through print, Internet, radio and television media.
Jean started her career in radio as a volunteer, then as a reporter-anchor and assistant news director at WEAA-FM (Morgan State University Radio). In 1978, Ms. Ross became one of the first voices on Baltimore\'s V103 FM (WXYV). The next 19 years she worked as news anchor, public affairs director, morning show co-host and then host of her own morning show "Jean Ross and Co." Ms. Ross was also host and producer of the nationally syndicated program "Focus on Women", airing in 50 cities in the U.S. and Caribbean in 1990 and 1991.
During her radio career, Ms. Ross worked in television hosting various cable television programs, video shows and special events. From August 1997 to April 2000 she worked as a freelance reporter and traffic anchor for WJZ-TV. Ms Ross also hosted a syndicated radio show for Jones Radio Network in 2001.
Among her many honors, in 1994 Jean Ross won the prestigious Crystal Award for WXYV from the National Association of Broadcasters for excellence in community affairs. (Only 10 stations receive this honor each year). She was named Baltimore Magazine\'s Top Urban DJ, Public Service Director of the Year for Black Radio Exclusive Magazine, National Personality of the Year for Summit Broadcasting and was a finalist for Major Market Personality of the Year by the National Association of Broadcasters.
Jean Ross is a native of Baltimore, MD. She graduated from Morgan State University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Speech Communications and Theatre Arts.
Rick Blalock Bio:
RICK BLALOCK is a two-time Emmy®-winning journalist, currently heard on CBS Radio. In addition to being anchor of ATLANTA’S BEST NEWS weekday mornings on CBS’s News&Talk 1380 WAOK-AM, he provides news coverage for the number-one-rated V-103 FM. Blalock also contributes weekly to THE DAILY VOICE, and was the Atlanta-based CBS radio correspondent covering the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Previously, Blalock reported for NBC affiliate WXIA-TV and anchored the weekend news at FOX5 News in Atlanta, Ga. He has covered Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and interviewed Presidents George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford. Earlier in his professional television career, Blalock covered the news in New Orleans; Dayton, Ohio; Steubenville, Ohio; Wheeling, West Va.; and Detroit.
In 1998 Blalock’s first book, Remembering Diana: The Peoples’ Tribute to Their Princess, was published. Currently he is writing a book about American troops killed in the Iraq War and working on his first novel. Blalock is a contributing writer to Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine and Black Issues Book Review, and his writing has also appeared in Black Enterprise, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Louisiana Weekly.
Blalock is a member and past secretary of the Board of Governors of the Southeast Regional Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which awards the Emmy®. He is a member of the Academy’s Southeast Certification and Category Committee and has lead judging panels for Emmy® entries for the New York, Chicago, and Michigan Regional Emmy Awards. Blalock is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, its Atlanta affiliate, and is a member of the National Press Club/Atlanta Press Club, and the Society of Professional Journalists.
Including being nominated five times by the Television Academy for the Emmy®, and winning it twice, Blalock is also the recipient of the: Associated Press Broadcast Award; Atlanta Association of Black Journalists Award for Investigative Reporting (twice—television and print categories); NAACP Service Award; Alpha Phi Alpha National Leadership Service Award; Outstanding Young Man of America Award (twice—1998 and 1992); Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan Outstanding Citizen of the Year and Outstanding Volunteer of the Year awards. He is also an inductee of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan Alumni Hall of Fame.
Blalock earned his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism degree (summa cum laude) from CentralStateUniversity, Wilberforce, Ohio. He is a life member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and was initiated at Pi Upsilon Chapter at The University of Michigan’s Dearborn campus. Previously, he served on the fraternity’s national board as Assistant Vice President of the Midwestern Region. Currently Blalock is a member of the national leadership team as chairman of the Committee on Media Affairs and as an aide to the General President of the fraternity.
Blalock's 35-year career began at age seven delivering The Detroit Free Press with his older brother. At age 10, in the fifth grade, he launched The Midland Press, his elementary-school newspaper; he later wrote for The Hawk, the newspaper of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan’s Highland Park Building; and The Hub, the student newspaper of the Horizons-Upward Bound program at Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills. His broadcast career began at Highland ParkCommunityHigh School’s WHPR-FM 88.1, where he was news director and a varsity basketball play-by-play announcer.
Rick is an aviation student pilot, single-engine-land aircraft and still aspires to attend law school one day. Home is where the heart is. Rick’s home is in Michigan, but he’s been on the road since 1988 and currently is lodged in Atlanta.
