Ken Rabac | How Does Therapy Help with Anxiety?

Ken Rabac

At the age of 14, when Ken Rabac switched from Catholic School to Public Junior High, he soon won a city wide writing contest for the factory suburb of Detroit, Warren, Michigan. The junior high principal recognized that Ken was academically advanced beyond the public school ninth graders and assigned him to come to school only for the morning session.

After lunch, Ken would go to the local newspaper office of Warren Press. He began as a feature writer and soon advanced to covering City Hall.  Soon after, Ken was hired to cover city governments in the suburban Detroit area for the Macomb Daily. When Warren Press was sold to U.S. Publishing Company (USPC), which expanded coverage to several suburbs, Ken became the editor of 7 weekly newspapers. Although he was 15, he had the appearance and comportment of a college student and news sources and readers assumed he was older.

Since the new publisher was an alcoholic, Ken was left with the responsibility not only of writing several articles per week, he also had to “keyline” or “paste up” the weeklies.  Ken was the editor in chief for USPC and wrote impassioned lead stories following the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.  He also denounced the bigotry of Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace which led to an angry mob of racist residents storming the newspaper office to protest the coverage of the Alabama Governor.  When Ken became the editor (and ghost writer) for the Detroit Voice Civil Rights newspaper, he became active in the Civil Rights Movement and also joined state congressman Coleman Young’s Individuals Against the Crime of Silence.  Ken Rabac became a confidant and protégé of Young which led to special access to City Hall when Young became the Mayor of Detroit.

Ken also became the Jazz reporter for the community newspapers and covered every act that came to the historic Baker’s Keyboard Lounge.  His first article was an interview with British Jazz giant George Shearing.  Ken became a close friend of both Yusef Lateef and Ahmad Jamal who would invite Ken backstage to enjoy exclusive Jazz discussions. He also spent time with Cannonball Adderley and many of the greats of Jazz.

In 1970, Ken relocated to the Grand Rapids area to attend Grand Valley State College and to take on the role of Television Program Host for WGVC TV, the PBS affiliate in

Western Michigan.  He was the first program host in the station’s history.

In 1972, Ken Rabac was hired as the Editor of Symposia Publishing, which specialized in Medical Textbooks. This position required Ken to relocated to Miami where he also became the entertainment editor for ILive magazine.  He also appeared in Miami area theatrical productions as Ken Stevens and co-created Paradigm, an Improvisation Troupe which had residencies at the historic Stonewall nightclub and the Rathskeller at the University of Miami. 

Ken and his partner, a Bassist who was in the pit band for Grease on Broadway, moved Paradigm to Chicago, a hot bed of improv with Second City and its imitators.  Ken personally received rave reviews fro the Chicago Daily News legendary critic Sam Lesner who wrote “Ken Rabac has  the spark of both Anthony Holland and Paul Sand.”

At the beginning of 1974, Ken was hired as the Editor of the Sports Digest Magazines and relocated to Chicago where he also wrote for the Chicago civil rights newspaper.  An offer to be a Talk Program Host at WEAW AM/WOJO FM of Evanston Illinois, led to Ken’s switch to radio journalism and a career in Broadcasting.

After moving to Evanston in 1973, Ken took on a second profession as Producing Director of Broadway Dinner Theatre near the Howard Street El. (Ken later discovered the dinner theatre was created as a haven for organized crime families who could mix in with the general theatre audiences and avoid unwanted attention.  Ken produced, directed and wrote several plays for the dinner theatre including Drakulya which ran for a year. He also produced and directed a Tennessee Williams festival and “Shaw ‘Nuff” a repertoire of George Bernard Shaw plays. 

One night after performances, Ken and the cast gathered their props together backstage and went home.  When Ken and the acting crew arrive the next evening expecting to perform, They were shocked to discover that the local organized crime family had totally removed everything from the restaurant and theatre room.  The dinner theatre had been totally emptied except for any property that belonged to the theatre group including the Philodendrons Ken had arranged in the dinner theatre windows facing Broadway Avenue. (“Herb” the owner of the dinner theatre was found abandoned on a country road north of Chicago having been brutally beaten and left to die.  The contrast between Herb’s treatment and the care and concern the crime syndicate showed for the theatre’s possessions was a shock to everyone involved. 

With an eye to security and safety, Ken Rabac moved the theatre to a church in Evanston where the theatre company (Alternative Theatre Company (ATC)) created a classical theatre in the round.