Amy Chodroff has had two specific long-lasting relationships in her life.
The first is with her husband of nearly 30 years, Jack Fink. The second relationship is with her on-air partner Dave Williams.
“We’ve been working together for nearly 11 years,” she said of Williams. “It’s hard to put two people together and find on-air chemistry.”
Former Program Director Tyler Cox paired them and it seems to have worked more than a decade later.
Chodroff is an award-winning news reporter and co-host of News and Information in the Morning with Dave and Amy on KLIF AM 570 in Dallas. Chodroff said her husband is a great guy. Williams, too.
“Off the air, Dave and I are good friends and enjoy each other’s company,” Chodroff said. “We know each other better than our spouses spending four hours a day with each other in a small room.”
Chodroff said Williams is easygoing and a fabulous writer. “If I’m having a tough day he picks me up.”
Jack Fink is a long-tenured political reporter at CBS 11 in Dallas. Before moving to North Texas, Fink worked for television stations in Orlando, Southern California, Fort Myers-Naples, and Utica, New York. He began his journalism career in Syracuse, where he was an anchor and reporter at WHEN-AM.
While not a showbiz family, you wouldn’t be wrong to call them a broadcasting family. When their daughter Jenna Fink was 10 years old, she’d call the station weekly and Chodroff would put her on the air.
“Jenna would give predictions for the Cowboys games over the phone. The segment was called Fink on Football. She has been into sports ever since she was a kid.”
Those early broadcasting experiences on-air must have sparked something. Flash-forward 13 years, Jenna Fink is now the sports director at KHSL/KNVN in Chico, California.
“When Jenna told us she wanted to go into the ‘family business,’ my husband Jack and I looked at each other and couldn’t believe what she said,” Chodroff explained. “She was smart and earned a business degree as a backup.”
In the crazy world of media, that was probably a wise move.
Jenna not only chose the same profession as her parents, but she also selected the same place to study. Chodroff and her husband both went to Syracuse and graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Jenna did the same.
“I guess Syracuse checked all the boxes for her,” Chodroff said. “I thought she’d made a good college choice in the end.”
Her younger daughter Jillian wanted nothing to do with Syracuse because she was all too familiar with the weather.
“She only wanted to go to school in the south,” Chodroff said. “Syracuse was not even on her list. Jillian had no interest in the ‘family business’ either.
Jillian danced and competed in gymnastics when she was young. She too loves her Cowboys, but unlike her sister, she’s perfectly happy watching from the stands.
“She’s a total go-getter,’ Chodroff said. “She loves her teams out in Arizona. Loves college football.”
Chodroff worked as a midday anchor at WDBO Radio in Orlando, as well as stations in Los Angeles and Tampa. Despite the rigors of the media industry, she’s proud of the way she and her husband raised their daughters. The aforementioned oddsmaker Jenna is 24, and there’s 20-year-old Jillian.
“If I want to assess my skills as a parent I just look at my end product,” Chodroff smiled. “As far as solid parenting is concerned, it’s important you’re both on the same page. I think that makes all the difference in a marriage and raising your child.”
Chodroff wanted two things for her daughters above all else. First, they were kind people. Secondly, whatever they chose to do with their lives made them happy. Chodroff is confident to say her girls achieved both.
New York City is a respite for her family and they get back when they can.
“We love to go to Broadway shows, we love the food. Most people don’t know the dairy industry is the single largest segment in the New York agricultural industry,” Chodroff said.
Jack Fink still has family in New York, although Chodroff said they don’t get back as much as they’d like.
Chodroff is a giver. She said she likes doing nice things for people when they’re sick or unable to get around.
“I’ll cook dinner for someone, especially when they’re not expecting it.”
She does more than cook. Chodroff said she’s a Mrs. Fix-it around the house.
“We live in a new house so my expert fixing skills aren’t required much,” she jokes. “I have fixed toilets, put in new electrical sockets, painted walls and replaced fixtures.”
Chodroff credits an experience when she was a kid that helped her hone these Home Depot-esque skills. One day her bedroom door wouldn’t open, no matter what she did. Her father slid tools under the door so she could take the whole thing off its hinges. That’s pretty handy for any kid.
Working a full-time job with two children can be a daunting task. Chodroff said there were times she and Jack were like ships in the night.
“The kids had a lot of evening activities and I was going to bed early,” Chodroff said. “Jack began to work days so he’d have nights with the kids.”
When Chodroff and her husband had children, they elected to not put them into daycare. If they could swing it they preferred to have one of them stay home while the other was at work.
“I know opting for childcare can be a difficult choice for some people,” Chodroff explained. “And I recall there weren’t a lot of daycare centers around for us 24 years ago. We looked at a few, but couldn’t find the right place for the girls.”
Her parents moved to Dallas from Florida and provided a great deal of help when the girls were young.
“Jenna was a figure skater and got up early to skate,” Chodroff said. “My dad would often pick her up from practice.”
Chodroff said it was a welcome moment for all when Jenna learned how to drive herself to the rink.
Robert helped with transporting Jillian for commitments. So much so, Jillian started calling her grandfather, Maxie the Taxi.
While raising their daughters Chodroff said each parent was equally present, an equal contributor.
“MommyDaddy was one name,” she said. “Jack would style the girls’ hair and they called him ‘hair stylist to the stars.'”
The younger child Jillian is a sophomore studying education at the University of Arizona. “She’s fabulous with kids and has the patience of a saint.”
When she can take some time for herself, Chodroff said she stays busy helping her mom, and the kids need attention from time to time. She also plays Pickleball regularly and said she’s still learning the game.
“I’ve got to master the finer points,” Chodroff said. “We have a few courts in the neighborhood, and I’ve met a lot of new people that help me learn the game. We can just walk up to a group of people by the court and say, ‘Who wants to play?’ You can play as much or as little as you want.”
Despite being from Boston, Chodroff has never worked in her hometown and never really had the desire.
“I guess I’m a Texas woman now as this has been home for 20 years,” she said. “We raised our family here. I’m part of a book club. The last book we read was pretty bad. I don’t think everyone enjoyed it.”
Chodroff enjoys reading biographies and learning about the lives of other people. Perhaps that’s part of a journalist’s perpetual curiosity. The impetus for a career in broadcasting came to Chodroff in the form of a television commercial.
“I was watching television when an ad appeared saying a local cable channel was looking for volunteers,” she said. “I popped up and told my mother, ‘I wanted to do that.'”
Her mother drove Chodroff to Canton Cable 8. Soon afterward, Chodroff started doing graphics at the station and other behind the scene stuff.
“I moved on to man-on-the-street interviews I conducted in front of the post office. I’d ask people what they thought of the big stories of the day.”
There may have been one prior indicator Chodroff might have had unrealized aspirations in broadcasting.
“I used to read the school announcements every morning,” she said. “The woman in the office at Canton High School hated doing them so I started reading them to the students. That may have been the beginning for me.”
Sounds like Chodroff owes that woman a fruit basket.
Jim Cryns writes features for Barrett News Media. He has spent time in radio as a reporter for WTMJ, and has served as an author and former writer for the Milwaukee Brewers. To touch base or pick up a copy of his new book: Talk To Me – Profiles on News Talkers and Media Leaders From Top 50 Markets, log on to Amazon or shoot Jim an email at jimcryns3_zhd@indeedemail.com.
