You’ve seen Ann Craig-Cinnamon and her husband, John Cinnamon, do incredible travel stories on animals and exotic places around the world on Great Day TV and Pet Pals TV. Now you’ll get to see Ann in another place: The Indiana Broadcasters Hall of Fame! The Indiana Broadcasters Association recently announced that Ann will be inducted during its annual conference in October, along with TV anchor and editor James David Longest, TV journalist Linda Lupear and TV program manager and network founder Ed Spray.
Pet Pals TV host Patty Spitler was inducted last year.
“I am so pleased and proud of this honor,” says Ann. “After 30 years of ups and downs and having lots of issues as a woman in broadcasting, this makes it all worthwhile.”
Originally from Louisville, Ky., Ann has had a long and varied career in journalism, radio and TV and racked up a couple of “firsts” along the way. She was the first woman to be a major part of a radio morning show at WNAP in Indianapolis, and the first news person hired at the fledgling Channel 59 in 1983.
Here is her story:
“During my first marriage, I moved to Tehran, Iran where I lived for 1 ½ years. When I returned home, I finished my degree at IU Bloomington with a major in Telecommunications. In late 1978, I visited three radio stations in one day and left my resume. By the time I got home, I had a call from Sam Graves, who was then the news director at WIFE in Indianapolis. He hired me part-time as a reporter, and I quickly moved to a full-time reporter/midday news anchor position, and did traffic on the morning show.
“Cris Conner, the WNAP Morning Team host and founder, called me in 1979 to talk to me about replacing Tom Cochran as part of the Morning Team when Tom when to TV. I spent four years at WNAP as the news director and part of the Morning Team and became the first woman to be a major part of a radio morning show in Indianapolis.
“In 1983, Chris Duffy who had been General Manager at Channel 13, was putting a brand new TV station on, Channel 59 (WPDS then). I was the first news person hired at Channel 59 when he made me an anchor/reporter and Public Affairs Director. The station was sold to Tribune a few years later and I stayed on to become the morning anchor at Network Indiana, which had moved into the 59 newsroom. I later became news director of Network Indiana from around 1985 to 1987.
“I made the decision to get back into morning drive commercial radio (my first love and the hours were better for the mother of two young boys) so I contacted the General Manager at WZPL who had been trying to lure me from TV back to radio. I became the morning show co-host/news director at WZPL in 1987/88 until 1991.
I then reunited with Cris Conner at the new Hoosier 96 (now Hot 96) where I stayed briefly before being offered the co-host/news director position at WENS (now HANK). I worked with John Cinnamon, a longtime on-air personality in Indianapolis, at WENS. After my first marriage didn’t work out, John and I married in 1995. I spent nine years at WENS and was the face and voice of the station. We did the Riley Radiothon in which we stayed on the air for 97 hours. I did it for seven years and raised more than $2 million for Riley Hospital for Children.
“During the last 1½ years of my time at WENS, John was moved to morning drive and we hosted together. We then became the morning show hosts at jazz station WYJZ, where we stayed for five years before it flipped formats.
“John and I have owned numerous businesses and got into the travel business eight years ago because of my passion for travel. I am an independent contractor for Travel Leaders and have visited 108 countries, all seven continents and all 50 states. I’m a ‘travel junkie’! We have a presentation about our travels that we give around the area to groups and organizations. We also do art exhibits of our travel photography.”
Congratulations on your induction, Ann! We’re looking forward to more of your amazing stories on Pet Pals TV and Great Day TV!
For more about IBA, click here: https://www.indianabroadcasters.org/iba-news/reporters-entertainers-and-network-founder-among-hall-of-fame-honorees/
