Whitney Martin, Rockford’s Longtime Media Figure, Shifts Gears

For the bulk of the last two decades you've been able to find Whitney Martin on your TV screens. This July, she's saying goodbye to her 2 a.m. alarm clock, but you might see more of her out and about in the 815.

The Forest City, the 815, Screw City, or just plain old Rockford, you know it well and you call it home, but were you born here and spent most of your adult life gathering, reporting and sharing news for the entire community? Probably not. But Whitney Martin would say absolutely.

As I sit here and type this, I can only think a few of my co-workers both here at 97ZOK (and the other great radio stations in this building) and at WTVO/FOX39 who were actually born in Rockford.

I truly think it's less than a handful.

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Rockford is an interesting media market, you either come here for a short period of time as a stepping stone or you realize the community is so great that you spend the bulk of your career here, but to spend the bulk of your career here AND be from here, that's a biggie.

WTVO/FOX39 Eyewitness News Anchor, Whitney Martin has that biggie. She was born in Rockford, went to East High School and started working in broadcasting when she was a teenager. You've seen her on difference stations at different times and for a bit in Milwaukee, but for the most part she's been here in Rockford.

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Which is likely why she's not physically going anywhere. She's moving to a new position this summer with the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (RACVB) as a Program Director for a new recruitment initiative.

I've known Whitney pretty well for the last decade that I've been working in Rockford and she might be Rockford's #1 cheerleader, so a position like the one she's taking makes perfect sense.

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I also briefly worked with the morning news and had to set a 'way too early alarm,' but not as early as she did and I can say the day I got to stop doing that was a great one. I'm sure she and her son will love to be able to have more of a 'normal' schedule starting this July.