Judi Weiss-Chislov

Dad worked for ABC in Los Angeles when, in 1969, his father passed away and left his son his catering business, a business about which the young Mr. Weiss knew nothing. He took the bull by the horns, moved his family to Miami Beach and began preparing kosher meals for the airlines. His buddies at ABC were in the area and asked him to cater their event, and this grew into doing location catering for conventions, and corporate functions. As teenagers Judi and her brothers spent their summers on the road with Dad. The brothers were industrious and formed their own company, parking cars; they moved on to do work for production. Judi got her first job as a "runner" for ABC when they picked up MTV and Judi got the TV bug.

Graduating from Miami Beach Senior High, Judi went to Bennington College for two years, and then finished at Penn State in Liberal Arts. She did an internship with WABC Radio, and was a runner for Monday night ABC. She was always fascinated with the Soviet Union so she studied Russian language and film. Penn State then offered a first time program in Volgograd, Russia in the summer of 1992. She brought video equipment thinking she would do a documentary on Musicians and Women in Russia. The first day there she met a student sponsor from South Africa who invited her to a music studio. Here she met a young Russian who caught her fancy and she stayed for in Russia for six months. She came back to the United States to prepare for her wedding to this young man.

Returning to Russia she received assignments from ABC, because of her Russian, to be production person for the Good Will St. Petersburg Games. She built a library of music and introduced promotional items side of business. In 1995 when she became pregnant with her daughter she opted for U.S. medical care and returned. They stayed here for a few years during which Judi worked for ABC, producing the Miami Soccer Venue for the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. This type broadcasting went out as the IOC decided to develop more of a "World Look" having every venue a separate broadcasting company. Judi's went back to Russia to cover the soccer. There was a major economic crisis in Russia in 1997 so she and her husband left behind his career in music and came back to the U.S. Not knowing English, her husband went to Full Sail and studied recording arts and engineering. He graduated with straight A's and was placed with Criteria Recording Studios and is still there now as Assistant Engineer. His real calling is music; he wrote the music that was Michel Kwan's introductory music at the Winter Olympic Games.

Judi came back to a career as production person for ABC, doing one to three shows a year in Russia, setting up production for Gymnastics in Russia, Moscow World Figure Skating Championships, and the Russian Grand Prix. She also does freelance work. She has acted as logistic manager for world feed for Korean and Danish TV to provide the best possible world coverage. Her work has taken her to Sydney for Volley Ball and she is the Hope Venue manager for figure skating. She is soon off to Athens to do a survey of production needs for the Athens Olympic Games.

Little do we know when we watch the Olympics that there is a Judi behind the scenes making certain that who, what, where and when is in place to do the job so that we may enjoy. Thank you, Judi.

 

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