Lois Reitzes has had complete editorial control over her daily arts interview show “City Lights” on WABE for the past decade.
In March, the 71-year-old Reitzes announced she’d be retiring after 46 years at the station. She ceded her final show last week to her producers, Summer Evans and Kim Drobes.
They took her on a trip down memory lane, enhanced by the presence of local jazz musician Joe Gransden, who played the show’s theme song live.
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Reitzes discussed four of her core loves: Motown, Mel Brooks, Mozart and the Muppets. They played clips from the promos she did for Adult Swim in 2011, a case of two very different worlds comically clashing, and a segment from her 2016 TED Talk.
They played several prerecorded odes to Reitzes from favorites of hers, like Atlanta food guru Alton Brown, travel writer Rick Steves and opera singer Jamie Barton.
She got especially emotional when the producers aired personal homages from her husband, Don, and her kids, Jackie and Michael.
The producers asked her to pick her three favorite songs of all time, which took her a week to narrow down. She looked thrilled as they played a clip of “Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder, which she adored because it was a dedication to Duke Ellington. She also chose Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom” and Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York,” an ode to her favorite city to visit.
Three people called in live: her former boss Christine Dempsey, who inspired Reitzes to loosen up after she began hosting “City Lights”; Atlanta native and Broadway star Shuler Hensley, artistic director of City Springs Theatre Co.; and author and humorist Faith Salie, who grew up in Dunwoody.
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Salie credited Reitzes for passing her book to Alliance Theatre’s then artistic director Susan Booth, which led Salie to do solo stage show “Approval Junkie” that landed off-Broadway.
“You have this genius mind that allows you to be fully present and improvise and let the conservations take twists and turns,” Salie said. “It brings everyone to this sense of discovery.”
“City Lights” ended up going longer than its normal hour, and the station skipped the 2 p.m. news in favor of Reitzes’ prepared farewell remarks.
“The older I get the more I realize moderation is highly overrated,” Reitzes said. “What I’m feeling now is not anything subtle or understated. My heart is full of gratitude for this career and all this has provided.”
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
After her show ended, she went down to the stage space on the first floor of the WABE building, where about 100 friends, family members, colleagues and fans shook pompoms and waved fans with Reitzes’ face on them. As she entered and greeted people like former colleague John Lemley, her 3-year-old grandson, Max, ran up to her and hugged her.
WABE president Jennifer Dorian feted her with gifts, including a specially made Muppet that resembled Reitzes. (Dorian sewed in the hair herself.)
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Starting July 7, WABE is changing its 1 p.m. daily arts show to the renamed “City Lights Collective,” hosted by Drobes and local artist Jon Goode, with more than a dozen contributors, including Reitzes herself.
In her honor, WABE has launched the Lois Reitzes Arts Fund, which will supplement more arts coverage at the station. It also created a special annual Lois Reitzes Leader of the Arts Award. Reitzes chose Christopher Escobar, who runs the Tara and Plaza theaters, as the first recipient.
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@a
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@a
In a text to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the party ended, Reitzes wrote, “ I was tearing up at times, but really the whole thing felt so celebratory that I felt elated.”
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