Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan is a western North Carolina native who graduated from Carson-Newman College (now university) with a degree in history in 1994. He worked as a local television news anchor and reporter for more than a decade from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, primarily in Savannah, Georgia, then continued his work as a freelance war correspondent, winning awards for his work covering local troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other far-flung locations. Afterwards Michael spent several years as public relations director for a group of history museums in Savannah, earning a master’s degree in public history in 2006.

Michael has produced more than thirty original films for a wide variety of museums, nonprofit organizations, and archaeologists, and has authored three published books, including a best-selling coffee table book about the historic squares of downtown Savannah. He continues to write and create new films on a regular basis. Michael came to us from Blount Mansion, a circa-1792 National Historic Landmark house museum in downtown Knoxville, where he served since 2018 as the Director of Public Relations and Development.

Michael arrived in Knoxville in 2014 following his wife, Dr. Krista Wiegand, who is Director of the Global Security Program at UT’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy. Michael and Krista live with their son Joseph in the historic Island Home Park neighborhood in south Knoxville. Together their family travels the world, with Krista having visited close to 90 foreign countries, Michael 60, and Joseph 30. Michael is also a musician (a baritone singer, backslidden pianist, and former euphonium player), an avid sea kayaker and an advanced scuba diver.

The Jordans are longtime public radio listeners, and Michael enjoys meeting the devoted listeners and generous supporters who make it possible for WUOT’s gifted staff to bring great music and groundbreaking journalism to local airwaves every day.