HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — News of Walker Sisson’s death on Monday, Sept. 2, 2019, spread though West Michigan’s radio-broadcast community like, well, electricity.
Sisson, 71, a well-known and mostly well-liked radio engineer for some 40 years, managed to impress almost everyone who met him.
Peter Tanz, senior vice president for WHTC’s parent company, Midwest Communications, Inc., wrote a heartfelt tribute on Facebook, shared by many.
“From the smallest transistor to the largest tower, where there was trouble, you’d find Walker. In stormy weather, Walker Sisson was in the elements, making sure listeners could get the news and lifesaving information they needed by keeping stations on the air,” Tanz wrote, in part, “With a brilliant mind, a kind heart and the understanding disposition of a kindergarten teacher watching over a room of youngsters with no real understanding of what’s around them, Walker Sisson positively touched every broadcaster he worked with… and as said earlier, hundreds of thousands of radio listeners he never met.”
Former Battle Creek broadcaster Arlene Tannis, one of many who posted their own reactions to Sisson’s death on social media, wrote about how he agreed to help her set up a home studio, launching her voice and production business in 2008.
He did more than help her choose which equipment she’d buy for him to install. He offered her seven studio-design options, then expertly set up her studio.
She paid him for his labor with a check — which he never cashed. She called to remind him to cash it, but he shrugged off the notion of payment for his work.
“He set up everything perfectly, of course,” she recalled. “I wouldn’t have been able to be in business if he hadn’t put everything together for me at the time. And that’s just how he was. And it’s hard to come across a person like that today — or any time, really.”
Like many of his fans, Tannis remembers Walker Sisson for much more than his excellent professional skills. (Listen to her full interview.)
“He was a great engineer, but … he was a fabulous person,” she said.
