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Tom Andrews founded Andrews Media Ventures in 1989, while in the midst of an extensive career in broadcast news. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1975, Tom served as a general assignment news reporter and weekend anchor for WOKY radio in Milwaukee. He also produced and hosted "WOKY Talky," a live, four-hour listener call-in program on Sunday evenings. The "open line" format gave Andrews the latitude to explore news issues of the day as well as discuss everything from sports and entertainment to health care and politics with his listeners. A year later, Tom accepted the News Director and morning news anchor position at WYNE radio in Appleton, Wisconsin.
In 1977, Andrews made the switch from radio to television news, landing a news reporter/anchor position with KXLY-TV, the ABC affiliate in Spokane, Washington. In addition to his general assignment reporting duties, Tom anchored the station's noon and 11 p.m. nightly newscasts. During this time he also began producing medical stories and several of his pieces aired along the ABC-TV network. Andrews also covered the aftermath of one of the biggest stories of the decade - the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens. In late 1980, Tom moved over to Spokane’s NBC affiliate, KHQ-TV, to anchor the weekend news.
Tom next got a call to come back home to Milwaukee and he joined the news staff at WISN-TV as a news reporter and weekend newscast producer in 1981.  The station soon made him a full-time reporter/anchor, encouraging him to establish the newsroom’s medical beat. His work as Channel 12’s Family Health Reporter earned him numerous local, state and national awards including the national ACA Distinguished Health Journalism Award which he won four times (1981, ’82, ’83, and ’86). Other health reporting honors include the Wisconsin Communicators Award (three times), American Heart Association of Wisconsin Media Award, Arthritis Foundation Distinguished Public Service Award, and the American Cancer Society’s Media (national) and Communicator (Wisconsin) Awards. Tom’s journalistic work has aired on numerous national broadcasts including ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, the NBC Nightly News, and CBS Radio News.
 In 1989, Andrews decided to stretch the scope of his communications work beyond the field of broadcast journalism and launched Andrews Media Ventures. Initial projects included on-camera and voice narration for various industrial videos, radio and television commercials, corporate media training, and more. The project work continued to grow as Andrews took over a radio and television news position with WTMJ in 1990. As overnight radio news anchor and TV news cut-in anchor, Andrews found himself in the right place at the right time to broadcast the first accounts of the arrest of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The reports earned him a Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Award for Excellence and a Milwaukee Press Club Award.
 
As he continued to develop his communications consultancy, Andrews accepted the position of Director of Marketing & Communications for Community Care for the Elderly (CCE), a senior health care agency in Milwaukee, in 1993. At CCE, he was responsible for the agency’s internal and external communications. His duties included public relations counsel and producing an external newsletter as well as other print collateral materials. Tom was also responsible for helping to increase patient census and he developed and executed a highly effective community outreach program. In addition, Tom coordinated news media relations and special events for the agency.  It was in this capacity that he worked for nearly six months with local and national political figures to convince First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to come to Milwaukee and visit CCE personally during the Clinton administration’s Health Reform Initiative of 1994. The First Lady’s visit generated tremendous national, regional and local news coverage including such key media outlets as NBC’s Today Show, all three Milwaukee TV stations, the Milwaukee Journal, TIME Magazine, Associated Press, CNN and National Public Radio. Before leaving CCE, Andrews’ efforts garnered more than $2 million in earned publicity for the CCE program.
Tom joined the Milwaukee office of Fleishman-Hillard, Inc., a global public relations firm, in 1997. As an account supervisor,his diverse client base included Harris Bank, GranCare, Inc. and the Fox River Group, a coalition of Wisconsin paper companies for whom he spearheaded media relations activities and was part of an extensive grassroots advocacy campaign. As part of the campaign, Andrews produced "For the River", a video chronicling efforts to clean up Wisconsin’s Fox River and the surrounding environment. The video earned an Honorable Mention in the national Communicator Awards competition.
Though his communications efforts have become greatly diversified, Andrews maintains healthy ties with the Milwaukee and Wisconsin news media. From 1997 through 2001, he hosted and produced 24 On Milwaukee, a weekly half-hour public affairs program on WCGV-TV, Channel 24 in Milwaukee. During most of that same time span he also produced and co-hosted the Ball Four Sports Memorabilia Showcase, a live, one-hour, weekly radio show on WAUK-AM Sportsradio 1510 in Milwaukee. The show focused on the Green Bay Packers, the NFL and the sports collectible hobby, mixing player interviews with questions and answers about sports memorabilia. Among the popular guests who frequented the show were Packer all-time greats Ray Nitschke, Bart Starr, Reggie White, Brett Favre, Paul Hornung, Willie Davis, Herb Adderley, and many more.
Andrews still covers the Packers, filing regular feature stories for Packer Report and the Green Bay Packer Yearbook, the official publication of the National Football League team. He also provides periodic features and photography for The Tepee, the official newsletter of the Milwaukee Braves Historical Association.
Packer quarterbacks Brett Favre (center) and Don Majkowski (right) strike a pose with Tom Andrews at the Lambeau Field Atrium during Packer Fan Fest 2005.
Please click arrows below to view more images from Tom's communications career.
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