Faces of the APA:
Wake Up Miami—Let’s Talk About Pool

She’s known as Susan Wise during morning drive-time, Susan Dodds to her friends and family and one of Tarmon’s Terrors on League night. Susan is the morning show host to Miami, Florida’s adult contemporary station, WLYF 101.5 Lite FM; she is also a member of the 8-Ball team Tarmon’s Terrors and has been an APA member for nearly three years.
“ Everyone at the station knows I play pool. The station’s news reporter, Greg, knows how the day will be, good or bad, by whether I won or lost—he knows by the look on my face! I also give reports about my game to the listeners the morning after League night,” said Susan.

Susan has been in radio for 21 years. In high school she started doing character voices for radio commercials. Wise started as a radio personality in a small town in west Texas doing the graveyard shift. “I’ve moved all over the country and have worked every on-air shift there is,” remembers Susan, “I love working in radio. I’ve experienced so much. Sometimes having to get up at 3:30 a.m. for a 5:30 a.m. shift puts a damper on the social life, but pool night is the one night I stay up past my bedtime!”

Susan became interested in pool shortly after losing her husband four years ago, “I was devastated. I became a hermit. One day I thought to myself, ‘I can feel sad and be by myself or I can fill my life with things I enjoy.’ I joined a pool team, took up golf, and I made my life full. I don’t know what I enjoy about pool more—all the people I’ve met and the friends I’ve made, or the competitiveness of the game—it’s a toss up!”

This article orginally appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of The American Poolplayer Magazine produced by the American Poolplayers Association.