Area native who helped start many broadcasting career dies

The name Specs Howard may not be familiar to most in this area, but in the Midwestern U.S. he helped thousands land jobs in broadcasting. Howard, aka Julian “Jerry” Liebman, died Saturday (9/3/22) at age 96. He was the founder of the Specs Howard School of Media Arts in Southfield, Michigan which operated from about 1969 until 2021 when it became part of Lawrence Tech according to DeadlineDetroit.com. What started as a traditional broadcasting school eventually offered digital media and graphic design.

But Liebman did not always live in Michigan. In fact, he was born in Kittanning, PA in 1926 and was a 1948 graduate of Allegheny College in Meadville, PA where he received a bachelor’s in history/political science and radio speech and dramatics. While he considered going into law, Liebman bought a radio station in Meadville which kicked off a lengthy career as a disc jockey. He later sold the station and moved on to others including WPIC (790 Sharon) and later Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan. The name “Specs Howard” came about in 1956 apparently from his taste in eyeglasses. He was also known as the “Kosher DJ” as he was an Orthodox Jew who would not work on the Sabbath.

Interestingly enough, according to this blog post from 2015, when Liebman left Allegheny College, it was to start a station in his native Armstrong County. At about the same time (1948) WAVL (910 Apollo; now WXJX) and (1949) WACB (1380 Kittanning; later WTYM; presently WKFO) he put WKIN-AM on the air at 1600 on the dial licensed to Kittanning. Depending on the source it may have had an ERP of anywhere from 1000-3000 watts. But it was not meant to be. According to a clipping from Simpsons Leader-Times, WKIN was on the air for just 16 months having started in early December 1948, thus making its swan song in the early part of 1950. One might suspect the high end of the dial, which was never the best place for market coverage, and WACB’s Kittanning presence at the middle of the dial probably did a lot to lead to WKIN’s falter. Once it did, however, that’s when Liebman headed to Sharon and WPIC on his way to Cleveland and then Detroit.

Specs Howard was considered one of the country’s high ranking rock ‘n’ roll DJs. His nephew, Eric Starkman, a freelance writer and blogger, wrote a great tribute to his uncle which was also published at DeadlineDetroit.com.