Mike Swickey, using the air name of “Mike Donovan,” spent 30 years in TV & radio broadcasting as an air personality, storm chaser (regional Emmy Award for Team Spot News Coverage at WKY/KTVY-TV), journalist (Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Best Radio Feature) – and writer, director, and producer of documentaries; including “The Assassination of President Kennedy: A Radio Documentary.” The award-winning Kennedy program has been heard on public and commercial radio stations around the world. It can now be found at the Internet Archive. Mike has also appeared in numerous local, regional, and national radio and television commercials.
Mike has been involved in political organizations and campaigns for decades. He’s been a Democrat, a Republican, a Democrat again, and finally deciding there is no box to fit him in – is a registered Independent. Mike worked as a lobbyist for a time and saw the political system up close and personal for what it is: rigged for the rich & powerful and corrupt to the core. The lobbying, grassroots organizing, influence peddling, and political guns for hire are all just another industry inside our political system that mangles the idea of democracy with their influence and manipulation schemes for sale. He also maintains one of the largest political collections in the country of political paper memorabilia (brochures, leaflets, posters).
Mike’s true love though is reading, writing, and thinking. A student and writer of all things philosophy and psychology, he is always asking, “Why is there anything at all?” He has also written countless essays and papers on philosophy, politics, culture, and personal history. His loves include his personal library of real bound books that he considers lifelong friends and companions. To Mike, books are precious, to be read and read again, marked in with marginalia, and looked upon as fountains of knowledge and open windows to our time on this planet. While appreciating the digital age, he still uses paper and pen as much as possible.
After his broadcasting career, he gave 15 years to the frontlines of cybersecurity.
Mike is now working on several new web projects.
He is married with two children.