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Leonard Will
Local Host, Morning Edition

Leonard has been the host of WKSU’s Morning Edition since 1988. That may be a message in itself, but it says little about the man behind the voice greeting WKSU listeners every weekday morning. Leonard grew up in Sandusky, Ohio, where he returned after completing his education and serving with the U.S. Army Security Agency in Europe. He began his radio career as a staff announcer at WLEC in Sandusky in 1963. Three years later, he moved to Bonn, Germany, where he worked as a freelance broadcast journalist, filing reports for the Mutual Broadcasting System and ABC News.

Upon his return to the U.S. at the end of 1972, Leonard worked as a Reporter/Producer at WERE Radio in Cleveland, later serving as the station’s news director, program director and operations manager. In 1983, Leonard was hired as general manager to build and launch Cleveland’s first full-time public radio station. WCPN signed on the air for the first time in September 1984, just 18 months later. Leonard left WCPN in 1986 to pursue other ventures, including the independent production and distribution of Ohio Portfolio, a weekly news magazine of Ohio business. He also became involved in developing “Time and Weather, Inc.,” which today he owns and operates, providing telephone time and weather services in Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Dayton, Ohio.

The Cleveland chapter of the Public Relations Society of America has honored Leonard with its “Lighthouse Award.” He has received numerous broadcasting awards and in 2003 was inducted into the Press Club of Cleveland’s Journalism Hall of Fame.

And, of course, Leonard still gets up at 2:30am every weekday to host Morning Edition on WKSU.

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