Lois Reitzes, host of “City Lights,” will retire on June 26 after 45 years with WABE. In her final week, she wanted to reminisce with former special guests, including Dr. Scott Stewart.
He hosts the “City Lights” series “Music in Media” segments, and is a longtime contributor to WABE Classical programming with his show, “Strike up the Band.”
Their friendship dates back 26 years, when Stewart moved to Decatur from Bloomington, Indiana, where Reitzes and Stewart both went to Indiana University. While tuning the dial in a moving truck in traffic, Stewart heard Reitzes hosting her Second Cup Concert show.
“ What do I hear, but a smooth and silky voice of a sophisticated and debonair radio host on a program that was called Second Cup Concert, and I was so thrilled to hear classical music on the airwaves, and enthralled by the on-air personality who clearly had a depth of musical understanding and a warm conversational presence. It made me feel like we’d been friends for years and I hadn’t even met you,” Stewart recalls.
Months later, during a WABE membership drive, Stewart and his husband went to the station to take a tour and finally met Reitzes. Their shared love of music and the Indiana Hoosiers basketball team instantly bonded them.
