By Rick Griffin

The recent holiday season was especially enjoyable for radio broadcaster and business journalist George Chamberlin.

A year ago, Chamberlin, 72, said he was near death after several extended hospital stays involving chemotherapy treatment for mantle cell lymphoma, a rare form of lymphoma that is named because the tumor cells originally come from the mantle zone of the lymph node.

“My family told me they didn’t think I would make it,” said Chamberlin at the recent Better Business Bureau’s Torch Awards for Marketplace Ethics, an event Chamberlin has emceed since 1998. “The doctors say the cancer is likely to return sometime, but I’m now on a maintenance program, making consistent progress and regaining my strength and some weight. I went from 210 to 170 (pounds) in a few months starting in May 2016.”

For the past 40 years, Chamberlin has worked in the San Diego news media, including radio, television and print. He has been honored three times by the Small Business Administration as the Media Advocate of the Year. For more than 20 years, he delivered business updates starting at 5 a.m. weekday mornings on KNSD-TV’s “NBC 7 News Today” newscasts.

He wrote business columns for the North County Times newspaper and served as executive editor for the San Diego Daily Transcript newspaper. For the past 30 years, he has delivered business reports as business editor with KOGO News Radio 600-AM. He also still hosts a Sunday talk show on personal finance on KOGO.

Not bad for a guy who fell in love with radio back in the 1960s and started out as a disc jockey. His first broadcasting job was working the graveyard shift at a Palm Springs radio station.

“I’m doing well, playing some golf and enjoying the four grandkids,” Chamberlin said. “It was a terrific holiday this year, and I’m looking forward to 2018.”

Scripps Research Institute Hires VP of Communications

TRSI said she will to direct marketing strategy and communications efforts for the institute and its affiliates. Her responsibilities will include overall marketing strategy and branding for the institute and coordinating the messaging via Internet presence and print publications. She also will direct media relations, electronic communications and social media outreach.

Prior to joining TSRI, Rooney was chief communications officer at the Salk Institute where she oversaw communications and media relations. Under her leadership, both the website and institute magazine were redesigned, ultimately earning a number of industry awards. Preceding that role, she served as VP and chief strategy and brand officer for The San Diego Foundation.

IABC San Diego to Discuss Largest Tech Merger in History

The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) San Diego chapter will host “Inside the Biggest Merger in Tech History,” a program about the creation of Dell Technologies, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24, at The Brew Project, 3683 Fifth Ave., San Diego. To RSVP, visit sandiego.iabc.com/.

Speaking will be Marilyn Olson, senior director, Dell Technologies. Olson, IABC San Diego’s 2015 Communicator of the Year, leads the strategic programs and operations for Dell’s Global Communications team, which includes responsibility for global strategic planning and measurement and major event and launch management.

Prior to joining Dell’s in-house team, she was a senior VP at PPR Worldwide and ran the agency’s internal communications team that supported Dell through its 2013 privatization and 2016 merger with EMC.

Dell Technologies was created following the historic $67 billion merger of computer maker Dell Inc and data storage firm EMC Corp. The September 2016 deal has been called the largest technology merger in history.

San Diego AMA Program on Restaurant Marketing

San Diego’s American Marketing Association (AMA) chapter will host “Trends in Restaurant Marketing” from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17, at FruitCraft Fermentery and Distillery, 1477 University Ave., San Diego.

A panel will discuss the latest marketing trends in restaurant marketing and the most effective marketing tools. Panel members will include: Lisa Erickson, director of marketing, Broken Yolk Café; Robert Lane, VP, Burger Lounge Restaurants; Mark Weslar, VP of marketing, Karl Strauss; Tony Lavely, chief marketing officer, Urban Plates. To RSVP, visit sdama.org/events.

AMA said its 2017 State of Marketing Study revealed that local marketing executives are moving away from using digital marketing exclusively to include more traditional approaches.

Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.

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