Jam Sardar

Journalism has always been Jam’s calling.

He worked for newspapers and radio stations in high school and college before becoming a full-time television reporter.

He moved to Lansing, where he regularly broke local stories (including one on his first day) and won an award for his coverage of the Final Four riot during his three years at WILX-TV.

Jam spent four years at WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, where he covered politics, hosted a U.S. Senate debate, and covered a rare (federal) death penalty case.

After two years in Philadelphia, Jam returned to Michigan as Assistant News Director at WLNS-TV, got promoted, and led the station from #2 to #1 in the ratings.

He did it with deep dives on important issues, hosting community events like gun lock giveaways and drug drop-offs to support the station’s on-air work, and by his devotion to quality: WLNS has won 12 regional Murrows in 12 years, as well as multiple “Station of the Year” awards from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters (MAB) and “Outstanding News Operation” awards from the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME-Michigan). He also led his team to award- winning coverage of mid-Michigan’s biggest stories including the Larry Nassar scandal and the mass shooting at MSU.

Jam also established three new shows, created the “Celebrating Spartans” series, and invented “Free Coffee Fridays” where fans could meet the morning anchors while enjoying a hot drink.

He has also mentored numerous reporters. Jam – who considers his newsroom a “journalism grad school” – has watched many on his staff move to major markets.

He has supported women and people of color: for years, the two main evening anchors have been women, his sports team has always had at least one woman (including a Sports Director), and his current weather team is 75% female. And Jam didn’t just hire people of color to report: he made many of them anchors.

Jam has devoted his life to the industry. He was the president of Michigan chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association and later the national Vice President. He also spent years on the boards of the Radio Television Digital News Association (“the Murrow people”), served as president of the APME-Michigan, and was a member of the MAB Foundation.

He was recently inducted into the Silver Circle by the state chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for a quarter century of contributions to Michigan journalism.