Barbara McKay: TV Personality, Cook, & Author (Charlotte, NC)

If you've spent time in Charlotte, NC in the last 40 years, Barbara McKay's voice could be as familiar as family. One of the region's most popular media personalities, she taught a generation of viewers to cook through her consistent presence on WBTV during an era when viewers sat by the television with pad and paper ready to write down the recipes she demonstrated and dictated step-by-step. She's perhaps best known for her work as co-host -- from the early 1980s through the mid-90s -- of the daily noontime show "Top O' the Day", and then from there, she went on to create, executive produce, and host other lifestyle shows locally, regionally, and nationally. She launched two successful magazines in the Charlotte market (one of which saw some of my earliest bylines) and she's recently published Coming Home, a combination cookbook and memoir that shares a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a life spent in front of the camera.