Encyclopedia Of Detroit

Award-winning broadcaster Amyre Makupson is perhaps best known for anchoring WKBD-TV’s (Channel 50) signature 10 p.m. newscast from 1985 through its finale in 2002. 

Makupson, née Porter, was born on September 30, 1947 in River Rouge, Michigan and raised in metro Detroit. She attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee where she received her bachelor's degree in dramatics and speech in 1970 and went on to earn her master’s degree in speech arts and communications theory from American University in Washington, D.C. in 1972. She held television positions in those cities before moving back to Detroit in 1975 to work as director of public relations for a local health agency, as well as anchor at the United States’ first Black owned and operated news network, WGPR-TV. 

Makupson signed on at WKBD-TV in 1977 as the station’s news and public affairs manager and remained there for the next 25 years. Her early on-air positions included hosting Morning Break, a live, 30-minute daily news and interview program, as well as doing five minute “newsbreaks.” In 1985 she was chosen to anchor the Ten O'Clock News, and then Eyewitness News at 11 on WKBD's sister station, WWJ-TV. 

Her many awards include six Emmys, induction into the Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2003, the Oakland County Bar Association Media Award for the show Straight Talk, and SCLC’s Media Person of the Year in 1995. 

Throughout her career, Makupson has been active in numerous community organizations. She has served on the Board of Directors of Covenant House Michigan, the Skillman Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Foundation, among others. She was named the March of Dimes Humanitarian of the Year in 1996 and in 2007 nominated for an Exemplary Volunteer Service Award. In addition, she is a stage performer and writer, publishing a book in 2004 – So …What’s Next? – about how people deal with death.