Ted Thorne

Ted Thorne (John “Ted” Thorne) was born October 16, 1929 in Detroit, Michigan. Mr. Thorne at 17 became the youngest sports editor of a daily newspaper in the state of Indiana, the Michigan City News-Dispatch. He was a television newscaster at WGN in Chicago during the mid 1950s and early 1960s.

Despite being a resident of Michigan City, Indiana, Thorne had a powerful influence on public opinion in Gary, IN where he served as News and Program Director of radio station WWCA. Thorne hosted the noontime "Sound-Off" program which had a large following. He also delivered expanded newscasts at 12 and again at 5 PM. Additionally he served for a time as news director at station WLOI in LaPorte, IN, a sister station to WWCA. In the 1960s Thorne served as the television host for Chicago's WTTW, when that station aired the Northwest Indiana Regional basketball tournaments each winter.

From 1978 to 1983 he was general manager of WIMS Radio in Michigan City. His career allowed him to travel worldwide and to meet notable politicians and personalities including Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Carter and Reagan. Other notable contacts Ted established during his career were with baseball's Ernie Banks and Ted Williams, and Paul Newman and Jimmy Stewart from the movies.

He emceed numerous events including the Miss Gary and Miss Indiana scholarship pageants. He graduated from Michigan City's Elston High School in 1947 and attended Indiana University. He was a past member of the Indiana Association of Broadcasters and the Michigan City Exchange Club. Thorne had what many would have considered a perfect voice for radio, resonant and carefully articulated.

Thorne married Nancy L. Schrader in 1951 and she preceded him in death in 1993. He died of natural causes in Michigan City, Indiana on April 3rd, 2007.