“Moments like this are amazing, and I am pretty blessed.”
terry clifford Radio Personality, WBEE
by Nicole Shein I photo by michelle macirella You might know her as T-Bird, or as the woman whose infectious laugh you hear when you tune in for your morning Taylor Swift fix. But Terry Clifford, who constitutes one-third of the WBEE Morning Coffee Club, is a Rochester radio institution, having been on the local airwaves since 92.5 was still called WMJQ and still played rock-n-roll. The station went country in 1987, but that change suited Clifford just fine. As a fan of rock, Southern rock and country music alike, she was thrilled to meet one of her musical idols, Charlie Daniels, during a work-related trip to Nashville. “He walked into the studio and for the first time in my life, I was speechless,” recalls Clifford. “It still gets me choked up!” Despite having met a wide array of recording artists during nearly 30 years in broadcasting, Clifford is still slightly star-struck when it comes to the accessibility of country musicians, in particular. “It never ceases to amaze me when someone of the caliber of Garth Brooks or Martina McBride will call the station, talk to me and say, ‘How are Marley and Mark [Clifford’s children]?’ These artists, more than any other, have gone out of their way to embrace the people behind the radio.” The people behind the Morning Coffee show, Clifford and her cohosts Newman and Steve, enjoy their job—but certainly don’t take it for granted. “We look at people who have real jobs, and then we look at ourselves and say, ‘We sit on a stool and talk, how pathetic!’” laughs Clifford. “It feels lame because we’re picking on each other and playing music, and every once in a while we give something away.” During a recent on-location broadcast in Batavia, however, a woman approached the WBEE personalities to tell them how she listened to their show while driving to Rochester for chemotherapy. “She said that if we hadn’t been on the radio, she wouldn’t have gone every day,” says Clifford. “And I thought, maybe what we do isn’t so stupid. Moments like that are amazing, and I am pretty blessed.” Although she admits that radio isn’t the most lucrative career, monetary compensation isn’t terribly important to Clifford. “Its’ equally important to pay yourself and your soul. If, after 28 years, you can walk into work every day knowing that you love what you’re about to do, you will be a considerable amount happier than anyone else.” Off-air, Clifford and her husband, Doug Mandelaro, enjoy watching baseball—both local little-league games and the big leagues—but they are a house divided, as Clifford is a Yankees fan while her husband roots for the Red Sox. “We both love our baseball,” says Clifford, adding that the intramarital rivalry keeps things interesting. “My husband and I try to go to a different stadium every year—we’ve been to Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York, Boston and Toronto.” Now that her children—Marley, 20, and Mark, 22—are older, T-Bird says that it wasn’t always easy juggling career and motherhood, but encourages other young women not to shy away from the dual roles. “You can raise a family and work,” she says. “There will be years when you don’t get a lot of sleep, but it’s worth it, and your kids will look at you and realize if you can do it, they can do it. What better lesson can we lay out for our kids?”
rochesterWomanMag.com :: august 2011
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