From: Detroit Free Press, MI - Oct 6, 2003
BY MORT CRIM
Russell Ruzio has a unique talent other disc jockeys must envy. The disc-spinning host of an Internet radio blues show claims he can instantly tell if a song is going to be a hit.
Does he have a special ear for success? Does he just know instinctively that rare quality of commercial promise when he hears it? Not exactly. With only 1 percent of his hearing intact, Russell Ruzio is hearing-impaired.
He claims vibrations from the loudspeaker are all he needs to determine which songs are going to be big hits and which songs aren’t. And super-amplified headphones allow him to do interviews with performers and take phone calls from listeners, just like any other disc jockey.
So far, Ruzio says, he’s the world’s only deaf disc jockey. But he’s hoping to change that by one day starting a broadcasting school specifically for hearing-impaired children.
In addition to the usual stock of broadcasting lessons, I imagine they’ll learn something about disabilities and how to overcome them.
What they’ll learn is this: The only real disability isn’t physical at all. It’s a disability of attitude that can affect anyone. It’s that little voice that says: ‘I can’t’ and when we listen to that little voice, that’s the greatest hearing impairment of all.
Today’s thought: Physical disabilities present us with detours, but it’s disabilities of attitude that present us with barriers.
I’ve just loved going through YouTube and finding old videos of Mort Crim doing the news on WDIV/TV4 from when he was Chief Anchor for the station.
Mort Crim
Besides my little stint in Kindergarten when I wanted to be a Vet (but later realized that being one would involve me having to put animals to sleep and other assorted emotionally painful things), my interests lied in either journalism or politics. Obviously by reading this blog, and my other one at Elect Romney in 2008 the political side of me is winning out right now.
There was a time though when I was pretty certain that I’d become a journalist. All through my Middle School and High School years I wrote the senior anchor at WDIV-TV4 in Detroit. His name being Mort Crim. He was electrifying in my 10, 12, 14 year old mind. He had a commanding presence on television, and on top of that he had whit. He always was ready for the one liner at the end of the newscast or before. I became a lover of puns because of him. I remember him telling about going to Nome Alaska, and remembering the adage, “When in Rome, do as the Romans”, only he changed the words to, “When in Nome, do as the Nomans”. He also impressed me in which his humility came through on his newscasts. Anyway, we had a correspondence relationship for a long time, and that relationship culminated in my visit of WDIV studios in Downtown Detroit where I not only got to meet Mort Crim, but Carmen Harlan his co-anchor as well as various other WDIV journalists. At the conclusion of our visit he and Carmen allowed me to get a few pictures. As you would imagine this was definitely the fulfillment of a dream, and when my pictures came back blank I was utterly devastated. Well, I knew it was a long shot, but I contacted his secretary about the matter and she set me up for another studio visit. This time the pictures came back perfect (I’ll have to dig them up and get them scanned, so that I can post them here sometime…warning in advance though, my hair is typical 80s style).
Over the years I have followed his retirement, his radio show, and his book writing. He also started a production company bearing his name called Mort Crim Communications. This week I looked him up again (as I’m known to do) on Google and found out that back at the beginning of the year he was diagnosed with Colon Cancer, at first after hearing this it was very upsetting seeing that my Grandmother died of the disease. But, after watching an interview that he gave Carmen Harlen (who still works for WDIV) for WDIV it looks as if his future is bright. According to the interview his last Chemotherapy was supposed to have ended in June. I can’t find anything else about him post that interview though as to how he’s doing right now.
Funny thing is, is when I lived in Jacksonville he didn’t live too far from me. At one point I know he lived in the Ponte Vedra area, and currently he hangs his hat on Amelia Island in Fernandina Beach. Anyway, since this is the personal blog I’ll be posting amazon links to some of his books, and YouTube videos from the “good ole days” when he worked for WDIV.
Click the image below to watch the full 20 minute interview that WDIV/TV4 had with Mort Crim earlier this year.
