Bill Lowe News Anchor, Airshow Announcer

Season 2 Episode 6 Bill Lowe News Anchor, Airshow Announcer 

Recorded: 4/23/26 

Released: 6/10/26 

Length: 27 Minutes 09 Seconds

We hope you enjoy this episode with the birds singing near Bill's front porch!

Welcome to Shaping Our Story with host Louise Krikorian—where inspiring leaders share their passion, purpose, and perseverance to help you thrive. 

Because every story shapes who we become.

What does it take to keep reinventing yourself over eight decades?

In this episode of Shaping Our Story, I talk with broadcaster, air show announcer, veteran, entrepreneur, and storyteller Bill Lowe about building a life around passion, purpose, and perseverance.

Bill shares how a high school radio internship launched a 40+ year broadcasting career, why failure taught him humility, how he became one half of North America’s first husband-and-wife air show announcing team, and why the secret to staying inspired is simple: keep moving forward.

From military service and radio newsrooms to air shows, entrepreneurship, and YouTube, Bill reflects on finding your voice, embracing change, and continuing to grow at every stage of life.

🔥 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How to find and develop your authentic voice
 • Why failure can become your greatest teacher
 • The power of repetition and continuous improvement
 • What broadcasting taught Bill about storytelling and leadership
 • Why staying forward-focused matters at every age

👍 If this inspired you, please like, comment, and share this episode to help others build meaningful connections and live with purpose.

 💻 LEARN MORE about our guest 

Custom Lighted Diecasts YouTube address:

https://www.youtube.com/@BillLoweCustomLighted

Custom Lighted Diecasts Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/CustomLightedDiecasts/

Bill Lowe’s Personal FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/lowespage/

Midstate Miata Club YouTube address:

https://www.youtube.com/@MidstateMiataClubofNewYork/videos

Edgerton Model Railroad Club Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066528042399#

💡ABOUT US 

On Shaping Our Story, inspiring leaders share lessons in passion, purpose and perseverance. Real people. Real stories. Real strategies to help you thrive. Hosted by Louise Krikorian, award-winning storyteller, educator, and filmmaker, this podcast brings you powerful insights from inspiring voices across industries.

#entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #businesslessons #businessleadership ##founders #founderstories #founderstory #angeladuckworth #grit #kellycorrigan #melrobbins #jeffberman #simonsinek #leadership #billlowe #newsanchor #airshowannouncer # CustomLightedDiecasts
# EdgertonModelRailroadClub # MidstateMiataClub #Podcast #Storytelling
#Broadcasting #VeteranStories #PersonalGrowth #Leadership #AirShows #Radio
#LifeLessons #ShapingOurStory

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🏆 LIKE-MINDED COLLABORATORS Kelly Corrigan, Mel Robbins, Jeff Berman, and Simon Sinek 

🎙️ PBS Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan Angela Duckworth Oct 4, 2022 https://www.pbs.org/video/angela-duckworth-k8wbgb/ 

🎙️ The Mel Robbins Podcast How to Create a Successful Mindset: The Science of Passion and Perseverance, Oct 13, 2025 https://youtu.be/rmW3Afu9npY?si=T9mdbxzI9TGxbtcu 

🎙️ Jeff Berman | Masters of Scale Angela Duckworth on her new book, the limits of grit, and her advice to founders, May 16, 2024 https://youtu.be/19CS4L8v4TE 

🎙️ Simon Sinek | A Bit of Optimism Podcast What Grit Really Teaches Us About Happiness with Professor Angela Duckworth, Feb 3, 2026 https://youtu.be/KAi2L_b1V2I?si=Lsf7YtcA5I4EcS4M 

ℹ️ Information 

◽️ Creator, Producer, Host: Louise A. Krikorian 

◽️ Editor: George C. Davison 

◽️ Years Active: 2025 

◽️ Episodes: 16 

◽️ Rating: Clean 

◽️ Hosted with Buzzsprout www.buzzsprout.com 

◽️ Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify https://www.buzzsprout.com/admin/2550358/episodes/19116729-bill-lowe-news-anchor-airshow-announcer

◽️ Available on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@LouiseKrikorian

SOS Questions are based on Dr. Angela Duckworth’s evidence-based research and book GRIT: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Scribner, 2016) and Angela Duckworth & Kelly Corrigan Tell Me More, Season 4 Episode 1 (PBS, 10/04/2022)

https://pbs.org/video/angela-duckworth-k8wbgb?source=social

Transcript

I'm Louise Krikorian and this is Shaping Our Story where I talk with leaders about their passion, purpose, and perseverance, to encourage you to thrive.

Today, our guest, Bill Lowe, started his career in radio while still in high school and at the age of 18 enlisted in the Army to serve in the US and Korea. When he returned home, he returned to broadcasting, which turned into a forty-plus year career as a radio news, talk show and public TV news anchor. He shaped his voice by listening to radio broadcasters like the iconic Paul Harvey. Bill and his wife Nancy Lowe were the first couple to appear as air show announcers in North America, which they continued for 30 years. Bill shares candid lessons on failure, humility, and finding your voice, both on air and in life by staying forward-focused, no matter where you are in your journey.

Louise: Well welcome and hello, Bill Lowe. Like, wow.

Bill: Thank you Louise. Nice to be here.

Louise: We've been preparing this for quite some time. Just, uh, full disclosure, you are my sister's husband.

Bill: Yep. Yes.

Louise: So my. Yes. Family, my brother-in-law. And I've been wanting to interview you for some, some time because something else that we have in common is that we both have a background in radio.

Bill: Yes, we do.

Louise: Yeah. But what we don't have in common is that you grew up spending the summers on your grandparents' farm.

Bill: Right.

Louise: And then when I was,

Bill: I was destined to be a farmer.

Louise: Yes. Yes. But when you were in high school, your English teacher announced that the local radio station was looking for some high school interns, and you started working there right away. But then when you graduated from high school, you enlisted in the Army at 18.

Bill: Yep.

Louise: And thank you for your service.

Bill: You're very welcome.

Louise: So you were in the Army for three years and then when you came back you went back into radio. Mm-hmm. And then you were in radio for over 40 years?

Bill: Yes. It sure enough.

Louise: Yeah.

Bill: So you worked as it all. I did because it was easier to talk into a piece of metal than to lift a bales.

Louise: It was cleaner, right?

Bill: It was a cleaner job. Certainly. It was cleaner. You didn't sweat your as much. Yeah, no.

Louise: You've worked as a disc jockey, as a news anchor, and you did program programming in radio. You also hosted talk shows. You were a news anchor for public TV.

Bill: Mm

Louise: And you then you decided to become an airshow announcer and you and my sister Nancy were doing that for 30 years. And you were actually the, the first married couple to be the air show announcers be doing that in North America.

Bill: Yep. We didn't know it at the time either.

Louise: No. And then you've also worked with model trains and. You also coordinate several YouTube channels.

Bill: Yep. Other than that, my life's been pretty damn boring.

Louise: So with all of your pursuits, what would you say is your passion or greatest interest?

Bill: That's difficult. It depends on the moment. Um, at, at currently and for the last 13 years, it's been the lighting of those vehicles for train layouts. Uh, but. At the same time when I was working in broadcasting, obviously, that as, as you know, consumes a lot of your life. And I, at one point I was doing both that and the air show announcing at the same time. And I have to say maybe of all of it, the air show announcing simply because it's a very small fraternity that is involved in performance at an air show, and it really, really is like a family. Very close-knit family and the things you see and the places you go and the people you meet, there's not another experience like that, I don't believe. It was just amazing.

Louise: So I've seen you and Nancy, um, announce at the air show that was here at the McDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida,

Bill: and that was just about six years.

Louise: Yeah. Spectacular.

Bill: Yeah. 

Louise: Nancy also. Nancy also sang the national anthem. 

Bill: She sings, she sings both the US and Canadian Anthem's acapella.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: Which is no small feat, by the way. No, she does have small feet, but that's not, no, that's not what I do.

Louise: Well, I do wanna mention one of your Facebook, your personal Facebook is, is very humorous as well, so you're,

Bill: If if, yeah, it's definitely X-rated sometimes, but yes.

Louise: Yeah. Well, so we're not gonna be talking about that right now.

Bill: No, no. My my sense of humor runs the gamut.

Louise: So you would say then your greatest passion then was working at the air show?

Bill: I really think so. I, I've always, ever since a, a small child, but fascinated by flight, uh, by airplanes, uh, actually by the time I was 40, became a private pilot actually. Um, and I don't, it's very difficult to articulate what that meant to be involved with talking to a huge crowd and trying to share that passion with them in an effective way.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: Because that, that was always what I felt our job was there, was to transmit to them the excitement and the wonder of flight and to leave there thinking maybe I made one person think about joining this fraternity.

Louise: Hmm.

Bill: That was, that was the whole thing.

Louise: So who was your mentor?

Bill: in terms of the air shows?

Louise: Yeah. If that was your greatest passion.

Bill: Yeah.

Louise: Would you say that,

Bill: Um, it's interesting, uh. I don't know if there was a mentor initially. I got into it by chance at a, as a volunteer mm-hmm. At a show put on by the National Warplane Museum down south of Rochester here, uh, in 1988, the guy that was announcing, knowing I was in radio, asked if I wanted to join him announcing, and I was like, sure. And that's how that began. And from there then. I got into the broader fraternity of air show performers, and there I met people like Danny Clisham, who's, uh, been at it forever as an announcer and is such an inspiration. The way he handles himself, it shows and numerous others. I, I really can't point to any single individual, though I think it was the same in broadcasting because they, the people that I had the fort, good fortune to work with.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: Over the years in, in that area and in air shows, all of them had something to give. All I had to do was be willing to accept it.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: And to decide, do I want that to be part of how I go about this, or is that something I don't want to do? But mentors, by and large, if you. If you're willing and open and willing, you can learn so much from the dinosaurs like myself in terms of broadcasting, for instance.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: Uh, but you have to be open to listen. You have to realize they have something to give and you have something to learn.

Louise: Right, right. So, and it sounds like your purpose is sharing enthusiasm and inspiring others.

Bill: Oh, absolutely. Not only in the air show business, but on the air. When, when, when I was on the air doing news or whatever I was doing, uh, to do news on radio, for instance, first and foremost, you have to be entertaining while doing it.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: That doesn't mean being frivolous. That means simply you have to realize you must get their attention first. If you don't get their attention within seconds. It doesn't matter what you have to say. So there was that, but then I have information you need to know and here are the facts carefully checked, and then you decide what you're going to do with it. But I want to present that to you. And it was a, an obligation, if you will, to present that fairly squarely and as expeditiously as possible. And. I always enjoyed that. I, I really did. It wasn't so much about, boy, here's me on the radio. It was about what we could do with this.

Louise: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So with all of your work in radio and you were, um, you had enlisted in the Army in 1960 and you served with the Nike Hercules Missile Air Defense System in both the US and Korea, then you’re running your own business right now, and that's the custom lighted die cast. You have several YouTube channels that you coordinate. You also volunteer at the Edgerton Model Railroad Club plus your work in, in air shows. What would you say was your biggest professional failure, and what did you learn from it?

Bill: Uh, I think my biggest professional failure, I have to go back to 1975 when I was at, uh, WNBF in Binghamton. And I had been there at that point 5 years radio station. I was an on air news personnel, uh, news anchor also had, uh, done some talk shows there. And, uh, one of the general managers, anybody that's been in that business knows general managers come and go. And the one who was uh, in charge at that point. And he, the kindest way to put this is, I forgot that he was the boss.

Louise: Mm.

Bill: He, however, remembered, and it was a life lesson that I learned very quickly when he decided I wasn't gonna work there anymore.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: Uh, and it was a, it was kind of shocking in a way, but on reflection, it was entirely my fault.

Louise: Mm.

Bill: I had forgotten my role. I had gotten, as my grandparents used to say, too big for my britches.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: By golly, he showed me how to get my britches back on real quick.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: So I think from a, from a standpoint of mistakes that I've made,

Louise: Right,

Bill: That's one of my biggest regrets that I let that get to that point. That's on me. Nobody else. And that's, you have to accept that.

Louise: But you learned to never do that again. So,

Bill: you bet your life,

Louise: Right.

Bill: No, when you can't pay the grocery bill.

Louise: Yeah.

Bill: You learn quick.

Louise: Right. This is true. So would you say that you do what you do because it comes easy to you or it comes naturally?

Bill: Um, I did. I discovered. In the broadcast business, certainly I discovered, yes, that I had the talent to do it. It just needed to be developed, which I was fortunate to be given the space to develop it. Um, and even air show announcing the air show, not, I enjoyed airplanes so much in flight and everything about it that, yeah, it was, it was pretty easy. Uh, what I do lighting these little cars for train layouts. That's something I did not know how to do.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: I kind of knew about LEDs and stuff from years and years ago, and I fell into it and I, I now, after 13 years, perfected that certainly by teaching myself, but I, I, I, I never felt when I was working in radio. You know how so many people would go, I gotta go to work again today.

Louise: Right.

Bill: I never felt that.

Louise: Mm.

Bill: I always enjoyed going in there. I enjoyed the creativity of the people around me.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: And the creative license that we were given and the trust that was put in us by management to do the right thing. And air show announcing same thing pretty much on your own. And you're on all day at one of those shows as the announcer,

Louise: Right Yeah.

Bill: But you were trusted to do the right thing again. And by the way, if you don't, you don't last very long. If you don't do the right thing, you will not last

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: very long in any of those pursuits.

Louise: That's true.

Bill: Uh, but yeah, it's, it's, I, I don't do stuff I don't enjoy.

Louise: Hmm.

Bill: Not for very long.

Louise: Right. Would you say that you give up easily when things get hard?

Bill: No, I, well, depends on what phase of my life you're talking about. There have been times that I've given up far too easily.

Louise: Hmm.

Bill: Uh, and sitting here at approaching age 84, looking back on it, I go, dummy, you had a chance to learn there and you didn't.

Louise: Hmm.

Bill: Don't make mistakes today that you'll regret tomorrow.

Louise: Hmm.

Bill: Best advice I could give somebody. Stop and think. Settle down. Cool. Off you. What am I doing here? That's a good question to ask at any time.

Louise: Okay. What keeps you inspired?

Bill: You know, um, I get up every day looking forward. Seldom looking backward. Uh, because the past has done gone, there's nothing you can do to change it.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: But each day offers an opportunity to learn, to expand, and to just generally enjoy the fact that you're here. Our time here is limited.

Louise: Hmm.

Bill: And you really need it. It's a cliche and it's ever so true. You need to enjoy every minute that you're here, the utmost that you can. There are gonna be times when you're tried. There are gonna be times when you're severely tested, but always remember you passed all of those tests before to get to that test,

Louise: Right.

Bill: And you survive those tests. That means you can do it again and you should.

Louise: Hmm, that's interesting. So you're inspired just by like the next day.

Bill: I'm inspired by drawing my next breath. Quite frankly.

Louise: Mm. So in your next breath, what are you hoping to do next?

Bill: You know, at this point I'm pretty happy with my life the way it is. And again, when you get to this age, you, your mindset changes considerably from when you're younger.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: Uh, you at some point, and for me, this has happened a little while back, you realize that almost all of your life is behind you, so you have a limited amount of time ahead. You don't know what it is. You don't get to decide. Nobody gets out alive. So what you need to do then is to capitalize on that and to enjoy it. I, I, I don't know how many other ways to say that. It's just that's the philosophy that's gonna get me wherever I'm going from here.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: Who knows what's around the next bend. I mean, I never thought 13 years ago that I would be lighting little cars and I would have a two year waiting list for the contract work on them. Who knew that was there? I didn't.

Louise: Yeah. Yeah.

Bill: You know, and there may be something like that around the next bend that all I have to do is get around that bend and see what's there.

Louise: So what would you say if somebody was starting their own journey, what kind of advice would you give to them?

Bill: Uh, always. Again, I, and it was very difficult when you were younger, but always move forward, think falling. You, you dwell on the past. At your own parable because again, you can't change it. That's right. And it will drag you down. Stuff that has happened has happened. It's over. It's done. Nothing you can do about it. Think forward. Move forward. Always try to improve. Always try to be the absolute best you can be at what you are doing or stop doing it. It's like we used to have people wanting to get into broadcasting and one guy sent me a tape when I was a program director.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: An audition tape. He sounded like Elmer Fudd. I swear I am not lying. He sounded like Elmer Fudd, and my advice to him was, go sell shoes. 

Louise: Oh my goodness. 

Bill: Find something other than this. This is simply not it. I, God love you for one to do it. You cannot. No one's gonna hire you, you know?

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: And you have to accept that.

Louise: Yeah.

Bill: And move on.

Louise: Well, you know what's…

Bill: And when I said, “Go sell shoes.” I wasn't that nasty about it. I'm simply. You know. Anyway.

Louise: Right. Right, but it is, it is interesting that you, you mentioned Elmer Fudd because, um, I know when, when we were talking before, you had mentioned someone that you looked up to in radio that you wanted to emulate.

Bill: Oh yeah. Paul Harvey, far and away. Paul Harvey. For those who are young in the audience, you can look him up on YouTube and you should, you have never, if you'd never heard it. You've never heard a presentation on radio like it, it is the epitome of how you tell a story of how do you use your voice of how you get people's attention. Paul Har and Paul Harvey, I like to say, would jump out of the radio figure, grab you by the throat and not let go until he was done.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: You could not turn it off. Uh, had the good fortune to meet and speak to him for about a half an hour once here in, in, uh, Rochester. And charming guy. Charming guy. And at the end of our, when other people wanted to see, talk to him as well.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: I said, I don't wanna capitalize your time, but thanks for talking to me. And his last words to me were, take care of that voice. And I went, oh my God.

Louise: Wow. Wow.

Bill: You know, Paul Harvey said that to me. Hmm. And I was like, oh, dear God, you know.

Louise: Wow.

Bill: But he was, he was, and will always be my hero.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: If you want, if you're gonna emulate someone, pick the best.

Louise: Right. That's great advice.

Bill: And I didn't want to sound like him necessarily, but I used some of his techniques. I adopted some of them because they were so effective, you know, and you see some of that here. In other words. The pause. The things I do automatically, because I did them for so many years.

Louise: But you cultivated that.

Bill: Oh, yeah. I, I'm getting, a quick story. I don't know how much time you've got. In 1968, excuse me, I was at WMLP in Milton, Pennsylvania. Was disc jockey on the air on the weekend. Only person in the place. So I was playing the music, reading the news, commercials, the whole nine yards. There was this old re real tape machine in the, in the control room, so it would come a break between songs. I knew it was coming, so I'd turn the tape, the recorder on and record the break 'cause I did it. I'm thinking, boy, that was really cool and entertaining. And then I'd start the, the song, go back to take play. To take back and go, good Lord, I would not listen to him in a million years. Next break. Turn the tape recorder on, crank it up a little bit In terms of my on air presentation, five or six times, I did that in succession, like the sixth time as I was doing it on the air, I thought if the boss is listening, he is gonna come in here, drag me into the parking lot and tell me never come back in here again. I thought I was, I thought I sounded insane. Play the tape back. I went, I'll be darn the key. It had to be as you were doing it, it had to sound larger than life.

Louise: Mm.

Bill: Because the radio listener cannot see you.

Louise: Right.

Bill: They have to form their entire picture of you from your voice and your presentation.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: And that was like one of the biggest breakthroughs. For me personally, because from that point on, that was the goal all the time. Play that tape, run that tape, listen to that tape and go, what can I do to improve it? And that's true to this day when I do a video for YouTube or Facebook before it goes on up to the public I'll look at that maybe four or five times going and picking it apart and maybe go back and reproduce it. Simply because I did not do my best job.

Louise: Oh. Wow. You know, that's, that's really interesting because with a podcast, I'm not going back to reproduce it 'cause I used to work in oral history and oral history is you just, just record it and you don't, you don't edit anything. So I, I edit very little. In the podcast, but I did get, um, I always ask for feedback and someone in, uh, at a Connecticut newspaper, um, I had asked him for feedback and he said, just keep doing it.

Bill: Hmm.

Louise: And each time you do it, get better.

Bill: Yeah. Well, but, but the only way you're gonna get better is to review it.

Louise: Right.

Bill: You understand what I'm saying?

Louise: Yeah. So what do you do consistently every day to help you pursue your passion?

Bill: Uh, well, being retired now a very long time. Um, I, uh, like I, every morning I do a rundown of a bunch of different news sources and that that ranges from AP to Fox News to Al Jazzera to The Guardian. I go through all of those to get the international picture, uh, the local television stations, uh. And Garrison Keillor writing.  He has, uh, he has a, uh, website, Garrison Keillor writing, and I read 3, 4, 6 days. He posts a new piece on there. One of the best writers ever.

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: Garrison Keillor Public Radio of course. Um, and then I, uh, I always try, try to spend at least a little bit of each day at the workbench working on the lighting, the vehicles, because it kinda have this huge waiting list that I'm always constantly trying to get through, you know?

Louise: Mm-hmm.

Bill: Um, and beyond that, it's just, there's things like, we got a gar, we're gonna be planting the garden before long. Uh, there's always something like that, you know? Well, again, it's basically, I can't stress it enough that you have to be going forward every day.

Louise: Right.

Bill: You really do. No time for back going back. No time for going, oh gee, I wish I would've.

Louise: Mm.

Bill: No, it's a waste of time.

Louise: Right. Yeah.

Bill: I don't have the energy for that anymore.

Louise: Right. No. I always think in terms of, um, people say if only, and I think No, not if only, think next time.

Bill: Yeah, exactly.

Louise: Yeah. So well, I really appreciate your time for the podcast, and I know you have a lot of links, um, for your work and you work with a number of different YouTubes, so I'm gonna list all of those. Um, and I wanna make sure that people can reach out to you because…

Bill: Very good. I'm always here.

Louise: You are one of a kind

Bill: And some would say, good.

Louise: Well, thank you again. I've really enjoyed our time together.

Bill: Thank you, Louise. I really enjoyed it too.

Louise: Okay. Bye for now.

Bill: Bye.

Thank you for joining us at Shaping Our Story. Thanks to our guest, Bill Lowe, whose ability to consistently keep improving with repetition, reflection and the discipline to keep looking forward is proof that he combines his passion with perseverance. If you enjoyed this week’s episode, click on follow and leave a comment to inspire us or suggest a guest. And remember if this made you think, please share the thought with a friend. See you next time.