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Michael Manning is an American broadcaster, journalist, author and musician.
At age 11, he informed his parents that he “finally decided what he wanted to do
with his life”: become a published author in newspapers and magazines, write
a book, host a radio show, appear in television commercials, and become a
musician--in that order. Basically, he’s achieved most of these goals and if he
hasn’t, he will when the time is right.

In the late 1980’s, Manning had logged appearances as a guest on 41 radio and
television public affairs programs in the Dallas/Ft. Worth market as Chairman of
Public Relations for a non-profit organization. KDFW TV Channel 4 was then an
ABC Television affiliate that produced a series of public service announcements
featuring Manning that ran for three years on every television station in the
DFW “Metroplex”. Soon after, he became a last minute addition to host a pledge
drive on Public Television station KERA TV 13 where serendipity struck. A
teleprompter broke down less than a minute before Manning went live on the
air to beg for pledges. Encouraged to “just wing it”, and with the station $4,000
short of its goal with an exhausted production team, Manning launched into a
comedic rant about his theory that viewers were not pledging memberships at the
lowest rung of five-dollars a month because they were allegedly budgeting for an
extra mixed drink to get them through the month! Station producers watched in
horror as an animated Manning walked toward and away from the camera lens
mocking self-help gurus, while the station’s bank of telephones started ringing off
the hook. However, this strategy of spicing up a “dull as dishwater” event during
emergency equipment failure resulted in the station doubling its financial goal by
the final evening. Manning’s performance also drew the attention of celebrated
television producer Bob Banner, who hired him to voice over a film project
for Southern Methodist University. Soon after, local rock musician and radio
personality Kevin Conn along with his production manager Tom Shealy recruited
Manning for an overnight stint at a failing radio station that was excoriated in
the press as being “dead on arrival”. Critics suggested that the station’s woes
somehow escaped the attention of Lorne Michaels for inclusion on “Saturday
Night Live”. In spite of this, (or because if it) Manning’s career plan from age 11
was underway.

Michael has enjoyed a varied career in both television and radio wearing a
number of hats; he has worked as a copy editor, a financial reporter with thrice
weekly Barron’s Business & Financial Weekly reports, as a news anchor, local
musician and host of a Marconi-nominated weekend music magazine, The
Saturday Main Event. From 1995 to 1998 he chaired a turnaround team to
salvage an independent radio station that was heading for the junk heap, while
staving off five hostile takeovers. Manning’s guerilla marketing effort involved
hiring radio personality Howard Stern’s agent, Don Buchwald as voice-over talent
to produce 400 annual ID’s, positioning statements, introductions and bumpers
used in an aggressive rebranding of the station’s on-air sound and image.

This controversial and unorthodox effort saved the failing Classical music
station from the wrecking ball with an expanded annual schedule of 132 Rock
and Roll style promotions—an unprecedented strategy at the time, considering
the station’s often stigmatized music format, associated more with listeners
belonging to limited social circles. Nevertheless, the restructuring was completed
four months ahead of Manning’s own forecast in his marketing plan. The publicity
from this “rising from the ashes” story also attracted the attention of Billboard
magazine who interviewed Manning. With the restructuring completed, Manning
returned to the airwaves anchoring news on the ABC Radio News Network
during the nationally syndicated Bill Mack Show. Mack wrote the hit song “Blue”
for Leann Rimes.

In August 2001, Manning became the first American journalist selected in 16
years to interview former NASA Astronaut and Eastern Airlines CEO Colonel
Frank Borman, commander of the Gemini VII and Apollo 8 space missions, and
author of the autobiography “Countdown”. In 2005, Michael reinvestigated the
New Years Eve in-flight fire and airplane crash that took the life of television
star and one of Manning’s rock music idols--Rick Nelson. Both assignments
were written for Airways magazine, an international monthly publication where
Manning has served as contributing editor since 1995.

Manning was nominated in Los Angeles by the National Association of
Broadcasters as On-Air Personality of the Year in a Major Market. He served as
emcee for three seasons of the now-defunct Annual Lone Star Film & Television
Awards in Dallas before accepting a high-flying offer to become a Helicopter
News Anchor with NBC affiliate station WLW TV 5 in Cincinnati, Ohio. After
his contract ended, Manning stepped down from “Sky 5” to focus on television
and voice-over work logging over 6,000 appearances in radio, television and
industrial films.

In 2007, he relocated to Arizona and focused on interviewing a wide variety of
guests including: symphony conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, Grammy nominated
New Age pianist David Lanz, Ken Mansfield, former US manager of The Beatles'
Apple Records and manager of country music legend Waylon Jennings, Christian
singer/songwriter David M. Bailey, film actress Barbara Leigh, cable television
host Annemarie Lucas of Discovery Network’s "Animal Precinct" and Jeb
Rosebrook, screenwriter of the 1972 Steve McQueen film, “Junior Bonner”.

In 2008, Michael was selected to substitute for Dick Clark as emcee of the
National Parkinson Foundation's Annual Gala of Hope in Miami, Florida.

During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Manning
provided online reporting of Team USA's Men's and Women's Bobsled
competition. That same year, he contributed to the book, Steve McQueen: A
Tribute to The King of Cool by Marshall Terrill in tandem with his 6-year feature,
The Annual Steve McQueen Film Festival online. A musician since childhood,
Manning is a singer and guitarist. He is a graduate of The University of Cincinnati
and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology.