Michael Sprouse shouldn’t be alive

That January afternoon in 2024 was cold, misty and rainy. Michael Sprouse was on his way home from his day job when his life changed.

He was involved in a serious car accident at Savannah Road and Wescoats Road near Lewes. But the crash wasn’t the culprit.

“I was knocked unconscious, briefly, by the airbag,” he said. “I went to Beebe – they were great – and everything was fine. But they said they noticed plaque built up around my heart and said I should see a cardiologist.”

The cardiologist discovered that Sprouse had a defect in his aortic valve.

“Shortly after that, I had valve replacement surgery, which saved my life,” he said. “One of the surgeons said the impact of the airbag probably should have killed me, probably should have caused it to burst, but it didn’t, and here I am.”

Now, Sprouse has a new lease on life to continue as a force in local media and the arts.

He started his career as a visual artist, a painter whose work was inspired by old photographs.

Sprouse grew up in Kentucky. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1990 and opened an art gallery.

“I was 23 years old. My mom had just died of breast cancer. It was a tumultuous time in my life and I needed to get out of my lovely little college town in Kentucky,” he said. “I had a dream I could make a living as a painter.”

Sprouse met his longtime partner George Thomasson, who was working as an accountant in Washington. Events led the pair to abandon the big city for a laid back Lewes lifestyle.

“There was 9/11, the sniper scare, the anthrax scare, a lot of dominoes were falling and we just decided to move to the beach,” Sprouse said.

Sprouse and Thomasson built a house in the City of Lewes that can best be described as a tick above a tiny house.

“We wanted to downsize and this is a house that is easy to get old in. There’s no second floor and there’s nothing stressful,” Sprouse said.

Sprouse was looking to grow beyond the work he was producing in his dedicated studio adjacent to their house.

Enter WRDE.

“I kind of fell into a TV career. I thought I was interviewing for a website design job at the then-brand new [station]. But at the end of the interview, they told me I was going to be their arts and entertainment reporter. I had no idea what I was doing – that wasn’t what I was expecting – but I said I’ll go for it,” he said.

Sprouse was paired with a young journalist and photographer named Nick Gruber. Gruber joined the station fresh out of college. He was fresh with new ideas.

“Nick was a creative trendsetter. We developed a relationship beyond being a reporter-cameraman team. We had a deep friendship,” Sprouse said.

The two produced arts and entertainment and Coastal Cuisine segments for WRDE, showcasing the local arts and restaurant scenes.

They later formed their own production company, Twin Fin Media.

Sprouse was 27 years older than Gruber when they teamed up. But Sprouse said it was a perfect match on many levels.

“His youth was so effective, creatively. I could not have done it on my own,” he said.

Sprouse was blindsided when he found out Gruber took his own life in 2023.

“It was devastatingly hard on me when he died. It took a while to get to the point to talk about it. We should have had so many more years together. I felt like the world was robbed of a great talent that was just starting to develop,” Sprouse said.

Sprouse also co-hosted the first live TV broadcast of the Rehoboth Beach Sea Witch Parade in 2015, along with Nancy Alexander. They will be back on Rehoboth Avenue again Oct. 25 for this year’s broadcast on TV Delmarva.

“Live TV is unpredictable and exciting. I couldn’t help but think about the Macy’s parades growing up. The amount of production that goes into live TV is like a theater production – lots of moving parts. I like being one of those moving parts,” he said.

Theater production? Yes, Sprouse has done that too, working behind the scenes with the Clear Space Theatre Company.

Sprouse has had several radio gigs throughout his media tour of Sussex County, including talk shows on Delaware 105.9 and his current show heard Mondays and Saturdays on Radio Rehoboth.

His wide variety of guests have included local artists, business owners and even Eve Plumb, best known as Jan Brady from “The Brady Bunch.” Plumb and Sprouse used to display their artwork in the same gallery in Virginia.

Sprouse has also dabbled in the written word. He is especially proud of winning the grand prize in the 2017 Rehoboth Beach Reads Short Story Contest for a book titled “Some Girls,” which was published by Cat and Mouse Press.

“It’s a fictionalized story about a teen growing up in Lewes and Rehoboth in the 1970s,” he said. “It’s based on ‘Some Girls,’ the great Rolling Stones album, which is a key element in the story.”

Sprouse has also lent his talent and experience to the Developing Artists Collaboration, which has a goal to “empower artists to transform communities through their creativity.”

The next medium Sprouse hopes to dive into is artificial intelligence.

“I find it interesting when I read the backlash about AI from creators because, to me, it seems like it would be beneficial to learn how to use it to create instead of being worried about whether it’s taking away what you’re doing, which it probably isn’t,” he said. “You can take a photo from 1910 and AI will make it into a video. Rather than being shocked, it opens an entire world.”

Spouse is now the director of marketing and communication for the Sussex County Association of Realtors, the local branch of the National Association of Realtors.

“There is a difference between someone who is an agent and someone who is a member of NAR. They are constantly training and adhere to a strict code of ethics. There are laws in place to protect buyers and sellers of real estate. I work to spread that word to the public,” Sprouse said.

At age 60, Sprouse hopes to lose weight, get back into shape and have a couple more decades to create.

“I feel like the third act has kicked in and I’m just trying to make my way as graciously as I can off the stage for as long as possible,” he said.