Bernie SmilovitzSpeaker. Sportscaster. Spokesperson.
the short version
Some people say Bernie Smilovitz is the funniest person you’ll ever meet. ‘Not true,’ Bernie says. He’s the most positive person you’ll ever meet — and he didn’t get there by accident.
brooklyn, and a grocery store
Bernie was born in Brooklyn in 1952, the son of two Holocaust survivors who raised their boys to believe humor is how you stay standing. When he was three, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where his father helped run a small grocery store and eight-year-old Bernie landed his first job in sports: selling peanuts outside DC Stadium. He never really left the parking lot.
we’ve got highlights
In 1976, Bernie took a $2.25-an-hour job answering overnight phones at WTOP Radio in Washington. By 1979 he was a TV sports anchor at Channel 5. In 1986, Detroit’s WDIV hired him to reinvent the sportscast — and boy, did he. ‘Bernie’s Bloopers,’ ‘Weekend at Bernie’s,’ and a nightly wink at the audience turned the sports segment into appointment television. Alongside legendary anchor Carmen Harlan, he helped power one of the most-watched newscasts in the country. He signed off on July 1, 2024 with a farewell the press called ‘the greatest goodbye in television history.’
- WTOP Radio, Washington — 1976
- WTTG Channel 5, Washington — 1979
- WDIV Channel 4, Detroit — 1986
- Signed off — July 1, 2024
the mission now
For nearly fifty years, Bernie’s job was to make people feel a little better at the end of a hard day. The desk is gone now, but the job hasn’t changed. He spent a career learning how humor holds people together when the pressure is on — on live television, from the family who taught him how to laugh, and in plenty of tough spots that had nothing to do with sports. Now he takes the stage to hand those lessons over: a working toolkit any leader can use the moment they walk out. It’s the same thing he did at 11 o’clock every night for 38 years... He’s just doing it in person now.
the career
career timeline
1976–1979
WTOP Radio, Washington, D.C.
All-news radio, $2.25 an hour, overnight phones, until a 5:30 a.m. call from a very famous drummer started everything.
1979–1986
WTTG Channel 5, Washington, D.C.
Weeknight sports anchor in the nation’s capital (and his first real run in front of a TV camera).
1986–1994
WDIV Channel 4, Detroit
Hired to reinvent the sportscast. Bernie’s Bloopers, ‘We’ve got highlights!’, and Detroit’s #1 newscast.
1994–1996
WCBS-TV, New York
Limited engagement.
1996–2024
WDIV Channel 4, Detroit
The homecoming. Twenty-eight more years as the city’s sports voice, signing off July 1, 2024.
Today
The keynote stage
Permission to Laugh: humor as a resilience tool, for the people who need it most.
the difference
why bernie
learned the hard way
Every tool here was earned the hard way: on live television, through an FBI investigation into a hate crime aimed at him, and from the example his mother set. None of it came from a textbook.
a voice people trust
Thirty-eight years, five nights a week, in Detroit’s living rooms. Audiences will already arrive warm to Bernie.
heart they don’t see coming
Audiences expect funny, but they don’t expect to be moved. Bernie does both, and the second part is what they'll remember.
tools that work
Your team leaves with three things they can actually do as they leave — not a poster about teamwork.
recognition
a career detroit watched
Five decades on the air, and the hardware to show for it.
01
Emmy Awards
Seven Emmy Awards across four decades on the air.
02
The Bernie Smilovitz Celebrity Classic
20 years, $2M+ raised for Detroit’s hungry.
03
Greater Washington Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
Inducted 2004.
04
Hour Detroit ‘Best Local Sportscaster’
Voted #1 for 24 straight years.
05
‘The Greatest Goodbye in Television History’
The headline that followed his July 2024 sign-off.
bring this story to your stage
Every audience gets the stories, the tools, and a reason to laugh on the way out.