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Giants of American Broadcasting 2017

September 12, 2017 by webmaster

GIANTS OF BROADCASTING & ELECTRONIC ARTS 2017

An annual celebration of THE LIBRARY OF AMERICAN BROADCASTING FOUNDATION

produced by THE IRTS FOUNDATION

September 27th ♦ Luncheon ♦ Gotham Hall

The Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts is an annual celebration of the distinguished individuals who have for the past century been the creators, the innovators, the entrepreneurs, the performers and the journalists who have brought the electronic arts to the prominence they occupy in the United States and the world today, and who have set the stage for the future. The next class of the best in broadcasting and electronic arts will join the honor roll in New York’s Gotham Hall on September 27, 2017.

2017 Honorees:

Gary Chapman
Retired Chairman, President & CEO
LIN TV Corp.

Barbara Eden
Actress Best Known for
“I Dream of Jeannie”

Jeff Fager
Executive Producer, “60 Minutes”
CBS NEWS

Joe & David Field
Chairman of the Board/ President & CEO
ENTERCOM COMMUNICATIONS

Michael Fiorile
Chairman & CEO
DISPATCH BROADCAST GROUP

Bill Koenigsberg
President, CEO, & Founder
HORIZON MEDIA

Andrea Mitchell
Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent
NBC NEWS
Host, “Andrea Mitchell Reports”
MSNBC

Jeff Zucker
President
CNN Worldwide

For Tables, Tickets, Congratulatory Ads:

Joyce Tudryn, 212-867-6650, Option 2, Ext. 11

[email protected]

RESERVATION OPTIONS:
Click here to view the 2017 reservation form

Salute those who have contributed greatly to our industry, as you support the important historical preservation work of the Library of American Broadcasting, as well as the training and diversity initiatives of the International Radio and Television Society Foundation.

Checks made payable to: Library of American Broadcasting Foundation.

Filed Under: Giants

Giants of American Broadcasting 2016

May 4, 2016 by webmaster

Filed Under: Giants

Giants of American Broadcasting 2015

May 4, 2015 by webmaster

giants2015

The Carter Family

Our story begins with a dream and a vision of Andrew “Skip” Robinson Carter. Carter’s aspirations of operating a Black radio station started at the age 14, where he built his first radio. Carter was born in 1919, and raised in Savannah, Georgia. He studied physics at Georgia State for three years and went on to the RCA School of Electronics and New York University, where he earned his first-class broadcast license from the Federal Communications Commission in 1947.

In 1950, Carter’s dream was achieved with the support of former Kansas’s governor and fellow broadcaster, Alf Landon. Alf Landon provided Carter with the transmitter and KPRS-AM debuted as the nation’s first Black radio station west of the Mississippi River. In 1952, Carter and Ed and Psyche Pate became business partners. They purchased KPRS for $40,000 from the Johnson County Broadcasting Corporation.

By 1969, the Carter family had controlling interest in the station. In 1971, KPRS-AM’s music format was moved to FM and became KPRS-FM. KPRT-AM was a full-blown gospel music format. In 1975, KPRS-FM became one of the first fully automated radio stations in the Midwest. KPRT-AM was fully automated soon thereafter.

In 1987, Michael L. Carter, Andrew’s grandson and accepting the Honor, was named president of the company, due to Andrew’s declining health. One of Mike’s first moves was to take both stations back to the “live” formats.

In 1989, Andrew Carter died at his Florida home. Carter’s legacy lived on and moved forward. Andrew’s widow, Mildred Carter, became chairperson of the board and the stations continued to grow and to solidify its standing in the Black community with various outreach programs and promotions, until her death in 2003. In 1990, KPRS-FM jumped from 8th to 5th, according to the Arbitron Rating Service. In 1995, KPRS achieved its highest ratings with a number one slot. KPRS continues to be the top rated radio station in Kansas City.

Herb Granath

Herb Granath is perhaps best known for his long and distinguished career at ABC, where he was a pioneer in many aspects of the television business. He led ABC into the cable and international arenas, and helped position the company as the industry leader in these fields. During this time, he developed and served as Chairman of the Board of ESPN, A&E, The History Channel and Lifetime Television.

He also served as Chairman of Disney/ABC International, where he was responsible for the international program production and distribution activities of The Walt Disney Company and its wholly owned subsidiary, ABC, Inc.

Internationally, he was a founding partner and Board member of Eurosport, the largest cable network in Europe. He also was a Board member of Telefunf, RTL2 and TM3 networks in Germany, Scandanavian Broadcasting Systems (SBS), and TVA, the Brazilian PayTV company. An early believer in European local television production, he brought ABC into partnership with, and joined the Boards of Telemunchen (Germany), Hamster (France) and Tesauro (Spain) production companies.

For over twenty years, Mr. Granath also managed ABC’s theater investments through the company’s partnership with The Shubert Organization.

Additionally, Herb has served as Co-Chairman of Crown Media Holdings, Inc., which owns and operates The Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel. He also served as Vice Chairman of Central European Media, (CME), Ronald Lauder’s international company, which owns television and radio stations, together with associated internet businesses, in central and eastern Europe. He acted as Senior Content Advisor to Telenet, Belgium’s leading cable company. Active in many areas within and outside broadcasting, he is past President of the International Emmys, and a former Chairman of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is a Director of the International Radio and Television Society, a member of the TransAtlantic Dialogue on European Communications, and the League of New York Theater Owners and Producers (which administers the TONY Awards). In former years, he was President of the Veterans Bedside Network, which serves VA hospitals, and a member of the New York City Council for Motion Pictures, Radio and Television during the Giuliani administration. Included in the numerous awards he has received are two TONY Awards, along with six TONY nominations, an International EMMY (Lifetime Achievement in International TV) as well as a U.S. EMMY (Lifetime Achievement in Sports Television, the IRTS Gold Medal, and Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame.

Mr. Granath graduated from Fordham University, where he also did his graduate work. He has been a member of Fordham’s Board of Trustees. In 1996, Mr. Granath received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College. He served in the U.S. Army, assigned to Special Services as a writer/producer. He is married to actress Ann Flood. They have four children, eleven grandchildren, and reside in Darien, Connecticut.

Gene Jankowski

Education B.S., Canisius College;  M.A. Michigan State U. Doctor of Humane Letters-Honorary, Canisius College;  Doctor of Humanity-Honorary, Michigan State Military Service U.S. Naval  Officer  1955-1960

CBS Corporation 1961-1989 Sales Manager, CBS Radio Network; General Sales Manager WCBS-TV VP Sales-CBS Stations; VP Finance & Planning, CBS Stations; VP Controller, CBS Corporation; VP Administration, CBS Corporation Exec VP, CBS Broadcast Group President and Chairman, CBS Broadcast Group 1977-1989 Veronis Suhler Stevenson 1994-2010 Managing Director Non- Profit Boards CASA Columbia-Center for Addiction & Substance Abuse American Film Institute (1977-present), currently Member of the Executive Committee; Chairman Emeritus International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences-currently a Fellow, former president Previous Board Member or Trustee of: Canisius College 1980-84; Catholic University  1984-88; Georgetown University 1983-88 American Red Cross-National Board of Governors 1984-92; TV Azteca, Mexico City 2002-2005 St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Bridgeport, CT  2001-2004

Publication Co-Author-Television, Today and Tomorrow, Oxford University Press, published 1995   Awards B’Nai Brith International-Communications Industry Award Southern Baptist-Distinguished Communications Medal National Conference of Christians and Jews—Humanitarian Award National Education Association-Advancement of Learning Through Broadcasting Award Canisius College-Distinguished Alumnus Award Michigan State University-Distinguished Alumnus Award Scholarships Funded Peter and Gene Jankowski Communications Scholarship at Canisius College Gene Jankowski Scholarship at Michigan State University College of Communication Arts

Mel Karmazin

Mel Karmazin served as CEO and member of the board of directors of SiriusXM from July 2008 until January 2013 when he retired. Prior to that, he served as CEO and member of the board of directors of Sirius Satellite Radio from November 2004 until its merger with XM Satellite Radio.

Previously, he was President and COO of Viacom from May 2000 until June 2004. Karmazin served on the Viacom board of directors and was responsible for overseeing all of Viacom’s operations. Prior to that, he served as president, CEO, and member of the board of directors of CBS Corp. from January 1999 to May 2000. Before becoming chief executive officer, he was president and chief operating officer of CBS Corp. from April 1998 to January 1999.

He joined CBS in January 1997 as chairman and CEO of CBS Radio through a merger of Westinghouse/CBS and Infinity Broadcasting. He had served as Infinity’s president and CEO from 1981 until Infinity became a wholly owned subsidiary of Viacom in February 2001. He was named chairman and CEO of CBS Station Group in May 1997. Prior to Infinity, Karmazin spent 10 years with Metromedia.

He is involved in numerous philanthropic ventures and has served on a number of boards throughout his career. Currently, he serves as a Trustee at NYU Langone Medical Center, a board member and Executive Committee member of Autism Speaks, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Paley Center for Media. He was inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and has received the National Association of Broadcasters National Radio Award and the IRTS Gold Medal Award.

Gracia Martore

Gracia Martore is president and chief executive officer of TEGNA Inc., formerly known as Gannett Co., Inc. She became president and CEO of Gannett in October 2011 and was a driving force in growing the nation’s largest local media company. Under Martore’s leadership, Gannett doubled the company’s broadcast portfolio and acquired full ownership of Cars.com. Martore also led the separation of Gannett into two publicly traded companies.

Martore joined Gannett in 1985 as assistant treasurer. She became a vice president in the Treasury group in 1993 and added investor relations duties in 1995. She was named treasurer and vice president, investor relations in 1998. She was promoted to senior vice president of finance in addition to her treasurer’s responsibilities in 2001. In 2003, Martore became senior vice president and chief financial officer and was appointed to Gannett’s Management Committee. In 2005, Martore became executive vice president and CFO. In 2010, she was named president and chief operating officer and was named president and Chief Executive Officer on Oct. 6, 2011. Prior to joining Gannett, she worked for 12 years in the banking industry.

Martore has won numerous business and industry honors for her leadership. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, she was named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” by Fortune Magazine. Following her selection as Gannett’s CEO in 2011, Martore was cited by Forbes in a review of the world’s most powerful women and, in 2012, she was named to Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women” list. Martore also was named on Variety’s Women’s Impact List 2013 and one of Washington’s 100 Most Powerful Women by Washingtonian Magazine. Institutional Investor magazine named Martore one of the best CFOs in America and ranked her the Best CFO in America in the publishing and advertising agencies category for three years in a row (2004-2006). The Washington Post also named Martore one of the top 10 female executives at major companies in the Washington region. In 2006 she was named CFO of the Year by Virginia Business.

Martore serves on the board of directors of TEGNA Inc., The Associated Press, FM Global and WestRock Company. In October 2014, she was elected to the Board of Trustees for The Paley Center for Media.

Martore is a graduate of Wellesley College with a double major in history and political science. While there, she was named a Wellesley Scholar for academic excellence.

Martore and her husband, Joseph, have two children.

Don Mischer

Don Mischer is an internationally acclaimed producer and director of television and live events. He has been honored with fifteen Emmy Awards, a record 10 Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, two NAACP Image Awards, a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, Europe’s prestigious Gold Rose of Montreux and the 2012 Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television from the Producers Guild of America.

As President of Don Mischer Productions, Mischer’s credits range from We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, The Kennedy Center Honors, and the 100th Anniversary of Carnegie Hall; to Super Bowl Halftime shows (Prince, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen, among others), the Democratic National Convention, and the Opening Ceremonies of both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games.

His recent works include producing and/or directing the 9/11 Memorial Museum Dedication, broadcast live nationwide; the 2014 Primetime Emmy Awards (hosted by Seth Meyers), the 83rd, 84th, and 85th Academy Awards, and the Breakthrough Prize, celebrating Scientists Changing the World.

Don has also produced specials with Beyonce, Bono, Prince, Rihanna, Adele, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Taylor Swift, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Elton John, Justin Timberlake, Barbra Streisand, Usher, and Carrie Underwood, among others.

He has received the Governors Award from the National Association of Choreographers, and is a member of the Event Industry Hall of Fame, the Producers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, where he was recently elected to the National Board, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, where he has served two terms on the Board of Governors.

Don holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Texas in Austin.

Jarl Mohn

Jarl Mohn is President and CEO of NPR, one of the nation’s most trusted sources of news and cultural content. In this capacity, Mohn oversees NPR’s strategy to continue NPR’s mission to create a more informed public by working in partnership with Member stations across the country. Today NPR content reaches: 32 million people who visit npr.org every month, 26 million people who listen to NPR programming every week, and listeners who download NPR podcasts 72 million times each month.

Mohn’s deep media experience has spanned all media platforms as well as rapid changes in audience trends. He spent almost spent almost 20 years in radio, many as a disc jockey at stations including WNBC in New York. In addition to his on-air work in radio, he served as a programmer, general manager, and owner of a group of radio stations. He created E! Entertainment Television, and served as its president and CEO for almost a decade. He is the former executive vice president and general manager of MTV and VH1 where he architected the strategy of long-form programming at the heart of the network today and diversified the networks’ audiences by developing innovative programming around alternative music formats. He was also founding president and CEO of Liberty Digital, a public company that invested in cable networks, the Internet and online businesses.

Prior to joining NPR in July of 2014, Mohn served the board of trustees of Southern California Public Radio (SCPR) for more than a decade, including two years as chairman. He also spent over 12 years on the board of The Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, including six years as its chair. He has also been a corporate director and advisor to a number of media companies, making direct early stage angel and seed investments in digital media/technology ventures. Since 2008 he has served on the board of Scripps Networks Interactive. He and his wife Pamela created The Mohn Family Foundation in 2000.

He attended Temple University, where he studied Mathematics and Philosophy.

Bill Persky

Bill Persky is a five-time Emmy Award-winning writer, director and producer for such hit TV shows as the Dick Van Dyke Show, That Girl, Sid Caesar, Bill Cosby, and Kate & Allie. As funny as the comedy scripts he has written for over four decades, he is a sought after keynote and after dinner speaker.

After a start at WNEW radio in the mid 1950s, Persky moved to California and wrote for a variety of shows including, The Steve Allen Show, The Andy Williams Show, Julie Andrews Show, McHales Navy, and The Joey Bishop Show, until he found a home with mentor Carl Reiner on The Dick Van Dyke Show. After three years as a writer, story editor, and two Emmys, Persky – with his writing partner Sam Denoff – created That Girl for Marlo Thomas.

In the mid 1970s, the successful partnership ended amicably, as Persky sought a new path as a director, specializing in Television pilots. From 1975 to 1982 he directed 22, of which 16 were put on the air as series, the most memorable being Who’s The Boss?. There were also five television films, and the Paramount feature, Serial, before he moved to New York to produce and direct 100 episodes of the series, Kate and Allie, winning an Emmy for directing. He was honored by the Writers Guild with a life time achievement award in 1998.

Persky lives in New York City with his wife, advertising executive Joanna Patton, and has a very active speaking career and is a guest lecturer at NYU Film School and Yale University, and teaches comedy writing at The New York Film Academy. In addition to his current memoir, My Life is a situation Comedy, he is a contributing writer to USA Today. Esquire and the L.A. Times.

Don West

The career of Don West has been divided between two worlds: that of print journalism, which he entered at 17, and that of broadcasting, which he joined at 13.

A native of Texas who grew up principally in New Mexico, where he worked for radio stations in Albuquerque, Clovis and Carlsbad, he was the first reporter on the scene of the celebrated but so far unsubstantiated alien invasion of the prairie outside Roswell, N.M., while working for the Roswell Morning Dispatch.

After graduation from New Mexico A&M he worked for the El Paso Times before service in the Korean police action.

He then came east, joined the Broadcasting Magazine publishing organization where he covered what it termed the Fifth Estate (all the electronic media beyond print) until 2001, succeeding founder Sol Taishoff as editor-in-chief in 1982. His principal detour was as assistant to the president of CBS Inc., Frank Stanton, from 1966 to 1970.

Filed Under: Giants

Giants of American Broadcasting 2014

May 4, 2014 by webmaster

giants2014Giants of Broadcasting
& Electronic Arts
Sets Honorees for 2014

 

First announcement includes Pablo Raúl Alarcón Sr., Raúl Alarcón Jr.,
David Barrett, Chuck Scarborough, Fred Silverman, Peter Smyth,
Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill and Sylvester L. “Pat” Weaver

The 12th annual staging of the Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts, a yearly event sponsored by the Library of American Broadcasting and celebrating distinguished leadership or performance in television and radio, is scheduled forThursday, October 16th, in New York’s Gotham Hall. The Library has announced the starting lineup of professionals who will be recognized in 2014 for their contributions to those media in the last half-century. The distinguished honorees join 170 Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts previously celebrated by the Library.

The Honorees

Pablo Raúl Alarcón, Sr. was founder and chairman of the board of directors of Spanish Broadcasting System from March 1983 until November, 1999, when he became Chairman Emeritus. Alarcón Sr. was involved in Spanish-language radio broadcasting since the early 1950s when he established his first radio station in Camagüey, Cuba. Alarcón Sr. had acquired 14 radio stations by the time he fled Cuba with his family to the United States in 1960. Once here, he continued his career as an on-air personality at a New York radio station before being promoted to programming director. He subsequently owned a recording studio and advertising agency before purchasing the first SBS radio station, WSKQ-AM, in 1983 with his son, Raúl Alarcón Jr. Pablo served as chairman of the SBS board of directors, while his son Raúl initially served as an account executive in the sales department. Pablo Raúl Alarcón Sr. died in Miami on June 11, 2008.

Raúl Alarcón, Jr. is the current CEO and president of SBS, positions he has held since June 1994 and October 1995, respectively. The company now owns and operates some 20 radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco and Puerto Rico, as well as seven television stations. He succeeded his father as chairman of the board of directors in 1999 and is responsible for the company’s long-range strategic planning and operational matters and acquisitions. SBS generated sales of about $20 million in its first year, confirming the influence of the growing Spanish-speaking audience. In 1998 SBS purchased its first FM station, KLAX-FM in Los Angeles. The company went public in the fall of 199l, raising $435.8 million by selling 21.8 million shares at $20 per share. SBS bought its third station, New York’s WSKQ-FM, in 1989 and reformatted it as Mega 97.9. The station surpassed the market’s longtime leader, the light rock station WLTW-FM, in 1998. In 2002 the company created SBS Entertainment, a concert production arm, purchased 80 percent of JuJu Media, the operator of the Spanish-English Web site LaMusica.com, and launched KZAB-FM, targeting the Central American population in Los Angeles. In 2003, WSKQ, SBS’s first station, was the most listened-to Spanish-language radio station in the United States.

David J. Barrett is the recently retired chief executive officer and chairman of Hearst Television at The Hearst Corporation. Barrett was named president and CEO of Hearst-Argyle Television in 2001, then a publicly traded subsidiary of Hearst Corp. He helped take the company private in 2009 when it was renamed Hearst Television. Barrett served as co-CEO of Hearst-Argyle Television from June 1999 to December 31, 2000, becoming CEO in 2001. He served as president from June 1999 to December 2012, when he was promoted to chairman. Hearst-Argyle was publicly traded on the NYSE from 1998 until 2009, when it was taken private by Hearst Corporation and re-named Hearst Television. He had a six-year tenure as deputy general manager of Hearst Broadcasting and four years as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Hearst-Argyle Television. Barrett joined Hearst in 1984 as general manager of the company’s Baltimore radio stations, later assuming general manager responsibility for the Hearst Radio Group and then for WBAL-TV in Baltimore, where he presided over the revitalization of Hearst’s original TV station. Barrett was given additional responsibility for the Hearst radio group in 1985 and, in 1989, assumed general corporate responsibilities for the Hearst Broadcasting Group. He remains a director of Hearst Corporation and is a trustee established under the will of William Randolph Hearst and a director of the Hearst Foundations. His industry leadership includes many years of influential service on the Television Board of the National Association of Broadcasters, and he remains active with the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation. He is a director of the Association for Maximum Service Television and the Broadcasters Foundation of America.

CHUCK SCARBOROUGH is arguably the senior major market anchorman in local television, by virtue of his 40 years as co-anchor of News 4 New York at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. at WNBC-TV New York. The Emmy Award-winning veteran broadcast journalist joined that station in 1974 after service beginning at WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg, Miss., in 1968 and continuing through WLOX-TV Biloxi, Miss., WAGA-TV Atlanta and WNAC-TV Boston. He celebrated his 40th anniversary with NBC 4 New York in March this year. In addition to anchoring and covering domestic issues, Scarborough has delivered high-profile reports on a variety of topics across the globe, reporting from Europe, Russia, the Middle East, the Philippines, Mexico and South America and has hosted special news programs for NBC 4. Scarborough served four years in the U.S. Air Force before beginning his television career. Among his numerous honors are 33 Emmy awards for virtually every category of broadcast journalism. Scarborough is also an accomplished writer and has authored three novels, Stryker (1978), The Myrmidon Project (1980), and Aftershock (1991).

Fred Silverman grew up in the television business. After starting out in the mailroom of ABC-TV in the late 1950s, he rose to director of program development at WGN-TV Chicago in the early ’60s. One day, he abandoned his car during a snowstorm and boarded a plane for New York, where he gained a position as head of Daytime Programming at CBS-TV. In 1970, he became the programming head of CBS, where he programmed such hits as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, M*A*S*H and The Jeffersons. Additionally, Silverman reintroduced game shows to the network’s daytime lineups in 1972 after a four-year absence. Under Silverman’s tenure, CBS also ended the practice of wiping and reusing videotapes and saved as much of their recorded content as possible, while other networks recycled tapes constantly to save money. In 1975, he left for ABC as head of its entertainment division, where he developed such new hits as Laverne & Shirley, The Love Boat, Donny and Marie and Soap. By the end of the 1977-78 season, ABC was number one in both daytime and nighttime. In 1978, Silverman left ABC and joined NBC as president and CEO. His presence helped stem the audience erosion of the prior five years with new programs such as Diff’rent Strokes, Real People and Hill Street Blues. After departing NBC in June of 1981, Silverman formed The Fred Silverman Company and became an independent producer. Among his successes were Matlock, In the Heat of the Night, Jake and the Fatman and Diagnosis Murder. Silverman remains in the independent production business and also does program consulting across the spectrum of electronic media.

Peter Smyth is the chairman and chief executive officer of Greater Media, Inc., one of the nation’s leading broadcasting companies. In this role, Smyth oversees the operational efforts of 21 AM and FM radio stations in Boston, Charlotte, Detroit, Philadelphia and New Jersey; a group of weekly newspapers in central New Jersey; and several telecommunications towers throughout the United States. Over the past three decades, Smyth has served in a variety of capacities within Greater Media, including general manager of WMJX-FM in Boston, vice president of the Radio Group, and chief operating officer of Greater Media, Inc. Smyth began his career in broadcasting in 1977 as an account executive with WROR-FM in Boston. He was quickly promoted to general sales manager, a position he held for the next five years. In 1983, RKO General, the parent company of WOR, recruited him to serve as general sales manager of its New York stations, where he directed the company’s sales operations until his departure in 1986 to work at Greater Media. A visionary in his field, Smyth has helped to revolutionize the broadcasting industry by advocating for and adopting new technologies such as HD Radio and internet streaming, and by developing and incorporating innovative content to improve media communications and meet the emerging demands of the industry and its advertisers.

JUDY WOODRUFF AND GWEN IFILL are the co-anchors and managing editors of PBS NewsHour with Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff; Ifill is also the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week, the longest-running prime-time news and public affairs program on television. Woodruff has covered politics and other news as a broadcast journalist for more than three decades. She was White House correspondent for NBC from 1977 to 1982. At PBS from 1983 to 1993, she was the chief Washington correspondent for The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, and she also anchored PBS’ award-winning weekly documentary series Frontline with Judy Woodruff from 1984 to 1990. For 12 years starting in 1993, she served as anchor and senior correspondent for CNN, where her duties included anchoring the weekday program Inside Politics. After taking off a year from broadcasting to teach at Harvard and her alma mater Duke University, she returned to PBS and joined The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer as senior correspondent and substitute anchor. Ifill joined both Washington Week and PBS NewsHour in 1999, interviewing newsmakers and reporting on issues ranging from foreign affairs to politics. Before coming to PBS, she was chief congressional and political correspondent for NBC News, White House correspondent for The New York Times, and a local and national political reporter for The Washington Post. She also reported for the Baltimore Evening Sun and the Boston Herald American. The best-selling author of The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (2009), she moderated the Vice Presidential debates during the Presidential elections in 2004 and 2008.

Sylvester L. “Pat” Weaver is widely considered to be one of television’s greatest innovators. His career distinguished that medium in its earliest days and his influence continues today. Weaver originally worked for the Young & Rubicam advertising agency during the golden age of radio, eventually supervising all the agency’s radio programming. NBC hired him in 1949 to develop a new television network. At NBC, Weaver established many operating practices that became standards. He introduced the practice of networks producing their own television programming instead of having the ad agencies do it, breaking the dependence of programs on sole corporate sponsors. He became president of NBC between 1953 and 1955. He has been credited with reshaping commercial broadcasting’s format and philosophy as radio gave way to television as America’s dominant home entertainment. Weaver created Today in 1952, followed by Tonight Starring Steve Allen, Home with Arlene Francis and Wide Wide World, hosted by Dave Garroway. He didn’t ignore NBC Radio, either. In 1955, as network radio was dying, Weaver gave it one of the greatest adren­aline kicks in its history with NBC Monitor, a weekend-long magazine-style program­ming block that featured an array of news, music, comedy, drama, sports, and anything that could be broadcast within magazine style, with rotating advertisers and some of the most memorable names in broadcast journalism, entertainment and sports. Weaver left NBC in 1956 over disputes with RCA founder David Sarnoff. Weaver’s last major effort at television innovation came in the early 1960s when he headed Subscription Television, Inc., an early venture into the pay cable industry. Although it failed, his efforts helped remove certain barriers to the eventual development of cable television. He died in 2002.

Award-winning actress Sigourney Weaver, his daughter, will be accepting the Giants honor for her father. Ms. Weaver is an American actress known especially for the lead role of Ellen Ripley in the four “Alien” films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection. She is also well known for her role as Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, and for Gorillas in the Mist, Working Girl, and Avatar. She recently starred in USA Network’s political miniseries Political Animals.

The Library of American Broadcasting(LAB) — located at the University of Maryland — is entering its 42nd year serving as the national information resource for the radio and television industries and the academic communities that rely upon it for depth and expertise. Its collections of historic documents, professional papers, oral and video histories, books and photographs are among the nation’s most extensive. LAB is evolving from a conventional library into a “homepage” for the world at large, no longer confined to responding to constituents one at a time but reaching thousands simultaneously through the Internet. Industry outreach includes lectures, symposia, print and the broadcast media themselves.

LAB’s chair is Virginia Hubbard Morris, president of Hubbard Radio, based in Minneapolis-St. Paul; the Giants event chair is Donald West, veteran broadcast journalist; the dean of libraries at the University of Maryland is Patricia Steele, and the curator is Chuck Howell. The Library has been honoring leaders in the broadcasting industry annually since 2003 — its list of Giants now totals 170. Previous honorees include industry founders Guglielmo Marconi, David Sarnoff of RCA and NBC, William S. Paley and Frank Stanton of CBS, Leonard Goldenson of ABC, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Philo T. Farnsworth, H. V. Kaltenborn, Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Arthur Godfrey, Paul Harvey, Charlie Rose, Ken Burns, Johnny Carson, Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Christiane Amanpour, Lowry Mays and Tim Russert.

Library of american broadcasting foundation

BOX 2749 ALEXANDRIA VA 22301 TEL 703 548 6090 WEST[email protected]

TICKETS: Reservations for tables and individual tickets to the event may be arranged through Jessica Wolin at 212-685-4233 or by e–mail at [email protected].

PRESS: Ellyn Fisher, 212-984-1964, [email protected]

Filed Under: Giants, News

Giants of American Broadcasting 2013

May 4, 2013 by webmaster

giants2013

Awards go to Anne Sweeney, Alex Trebek, Barry Diller, Morley Safer, Dick Cavett, Jeff Smulyan, Robert L. Johnson, David E. Kelley, Richard E. Wiley, Richard Leibner and Carole Cooper

The 11th annual staging of the GIANTS OF BROADCASTING, a yearly event sponsored by the Library of American Broadcasting and celebrating distinguished leadership or performance in television and radio, is scheduled for OCTOBER 16 in New York’s Gotham Hall. Eleven distinguished professionals will be recognized in 2013 for excellence in the electronic communication arts, joining 159 previously honored by the Library since 2003.

The Honorees:

ANNE SWEENEY is co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of the Disney/ABC Television Group, which includes The Walt Disney Company’s global entertainment and news television properties, its owned television stations group and radio businesses. Curiosity, creativity and a single-minded focus on what consumers want have guided Sweeney’s groundbreaking career in television. Overseeing properties including the ABC Television Network, Disney Channels Worldwide, ABC Family and ABC Studios, in 2005 she led the industry into the digital era when the Disney/ABC Television Group became the first media company to put television content on new platforms. The group was the first to leverage iTunes, the first to introduce an ad-supported full episode player online, and the first to deliver an application for the revolutionary iPad. Under Sweeney’s leadership, the Group continues to combine high-quality content with strategic use of traditional and emerging distribution platforms to deliver compelling news and entertainment viewing experiences to hundreds of millions of people around the world. Most recently, through its WATCH ABC service, ABC became the first major network to provide authenticated viewers with live access to their favorite ABC shows and local market programming, as well as a variety of on-demand content, in more ways than ever before, at home and on the go. Additionally, during Sweeney’s tenure she oversaw the successful launch of the 24-hour channel Toon Disney (now Disney XD) and later the launch of Disney Junior. Sweeney joined The Walt Disney Company in 1996. Previously she was chairman and CEO of FX Networks Inc., where she presided over the launch of FX and FXM: Movies from Fox, Hollywood’s first studio-based movie network. Before joining Fox, Sweeney spent 12 years at Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, latterly as senior vice president of Program Enterprises. She has been named one of “The 50 Most Powerful Women in Business” by Fortune, one of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes and the “Most Powerful Woman in Entertainment” by The Hollywood Reporter.

ALEX TREBEK, one of television’s most iconic figures, has entertained millions of viewers worldwide during the last three decades of Jeopardy! Trebek has hosted more than 6,000 episodes since the show’s latest incarnation made its syndicated debut in 1984. Jeopardy! won its 30th Emmy last year. Trebek himself has won five Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Game Show Host and in 2011 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Trebek started his broadcasting career in 1961 as a reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Canada’s premier network, where he covered national news and special events for radio and television. Five years later he was offered the quizmaster position on a game show for Canadian high school kids, Reach for the Top, and hosted several other Canadian game shows at the same time. He left Canada in 1973 and came to America to host NBC’s The Wizard of Odds. After joining Merv Griffin’s Jeopardy!, Trebek was a hit with viewers and quickly became a pop culture icon. A long-time USO supporter, he has participated in 12 USO tours greeting America’s men and women in uniform. He has been honored with a coveted star on both the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Canadian Walk of Fame in Toronto, making him one of only a handful of people so honored by both countries.

BARRY DILLER is themedia titan responsible for the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting, and former CEO of Paramount Pictures, who is currently the Chairman of and Senior Executive of IAC, a leading media and Internet conglomerate, and of Expedia. His life could be the stuff of a Hollywood script. Self-made in the media, he started at the bottom of the social scale working in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency, before joining ABC as a television executive, where he created the ABC Movie of the Week, pioneering the concept of the made-for television movie through a series of 90-minute films produced exclusively for television. At 31 he became president of Paramount Studios, turning the company around by reducing budgets and launching shows including Taxi and Cheers and feature films such as Saturday Night Fever and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. When Rupert Murdoch bought Twentieth Century Fox Corporation and asked Diller to help him launch the broadcasting division, few thought a fourth network was possible, but Diller proved them wrong. After the launch of FOX he decided it was time to have his own business. He amassed a media empire, including multiple cable channels and Internet companies. Diller purchased a stake in the home-shopping channel QVC and later took control of USA Interactive. In 1996, he became the head of Silver King Communications, renamed IAC, and since then has led the company to a series of acquisitions in Internet companies, including Ticketmaster, Expedia, Citysearch, Match.com and the search engine Ask.com. In 2005 IAC spun off Expedia to make it a separate, publicly traded company. In 2008, Diller’s IAC spun off their other major assets including Ticketmaster, HSN, Tree.com and Interval Leisure Group. Diller is currently the backer of Aereo, a technology startup that allows users to access over the air television across all Internet connected devices and platforms, a move challenged by many broadcasters.

Few have ever been able to tell a story as well as MORLEY SAFER, theaward-winning 60 Minutes correspondent on CBS and pioneering war reporter. Safer’s witty and superbly written features have been a mainstay for over four decades on that TV stalwart. His primetime achievements rest on a foundation of groundbreaking war reporting that began in Africa and the Middle East for the CBC and continued at CBS News in the 1960s with coverage in Southeast Asia. Safer’s legendary CBS Evening News reports from Vietnam battlefields changed war reporting forever; his 1965 story showing G.I.s burning the homes of villagers in Cam Ne was named one of the top 100 news reports of the century. The report prompted the U.S. military to issue new rules of engagement. In 1965 Safer opened the Saigon Bureau for CBS News and he later served as the network’s London Bureau chief. In 2011 Safer landed one of the biggest interviews for CBS: 18.5 million people watched him ask Ruth Madoff what she knew about her husband Bernard’s Ponzi scheme. Safer’s investigative report on Lenell Geter, an engineer wrongly convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to a life term in Texas, also received national attention and prestigious broadcast journalism awards. Safer has won 12 Emmy Awards, three Overseas Press Club Awards, three Peabody Awards and two Alfred I. DuPont–Columbia University Awards. He has also written a best-selling book, Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam (1990), which describes his 1989 return to Vietnam.

DICK CAVETT, Emmy-winning talk show legend, comedian and writer, has hosted and interviewed a wide range of guests, from authors and political figures to musicians and singers. Over the course of his career, and on The Dick Cavett Show particularly, Cavett has enjoyed pairing controversial people with opposing views to discuss often taboo subject matter. Cavett has won three Emmy Awards for his work. He began his career as a copyboy at Time magazine, then was hired as a comedy writer for The Tonight Show after he slipped an envelope of jokes into Jack Paar’s hands in an RCA Building hallway. Cavett also wrote for shows including The Jerry Lewis Show, and later did stand-up on The Tonight Show, The Merv Griffin Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. This success led to ABC giving Cavett the job hosting This Morning in 1968 and then his own late-night program, The Dick Cavett Show, a year later. Cavett is probably best known for this first incarnation of the several talk shows that have borne his name and aired on various networks from 1969 to 2007. The show was often referred to as “the thinking man’s talk show” and Cavett was considered a solid and thoughtful interviewer.Guests included Jimi Hendrix, Bobby Fischer, Groucho Marx, Orson Welles, Gore Vidal, Marlon Brando and Muhammad Ali. John Lennon and Yoko gave Cavett their first interview after the break-up of the Beatles in September 1971, and in 1973 Katherine Hepburn gave Cavett her first-ever television interview. Since the show, Cavett has appeared many times as a stand-up comedian on a variety of talk shows, in commercials and occasionally in theater, such as Broadway’s Otherwise Engaged and Into the Woods. He is currently a contributing blogger for The New York Times.

Radio veteran JEFF SMULYAN is the founder, CEO and president of Emmis Communications, an Indianapolis-based radio, TV and magazine publishing company. After operating two radio stations – WNTS in Indianapolis and KCRO in Omaha – Smulyan formed and became principal shareholder of Emmis in 1980. The company currently owns and operates 20 FM and 2 AM radio stations in the nation’s largest markets and six local, regional and national magazine operations. In 1995, Emmis became the first company to own top-rated stations in New York and Los Angeles simultaneously. A former director of the National Association of Broadcasters and former chairman of the Board of Directors of the Radio Advertising Bureau, Smulyan served as past chair of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, a consortium of CEOs from central Indiana’s largest corporations. He is a member of numerous civic boards and committees. As principal shareholder, Smulyan led a group that purchased the Seattle Mariners baseball team in 1989, selling the club three years later. In 2000, Smulyan was honored with the National Association of Broadcasters’ National Radio Award and as Radio Ink’s “Radio Executive of the Year.” He has also been named one of the 10 most influential radio executives of the past two decades. In recent years, Smulyan has been leading the radio industry’s groundbreaking efforts to expand FM radio’s reach to mobile phones.

ROBERT L. JOHNSON, businessman, media mogul, investor and billionaire, is perhaps most well-known for being the founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), the first cable network designed to reach African Americans. The network, which provides music, news, sports and public affairs programming, launched modestly in 1980 and has been widely credited with bringing diversity to mainstream media to a degree never before seen. Upon Johnson’s taking the company public in 1991, it became the first African American-owned business to be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The network, later sold to Viacom, has continued to grow to reach tens of millions of homes and expand to include other traditional and digital channels. Johnson remained the CEO through 2005. After stepping down, he dedicated himself to several other business and philanthropic pursuits. Johnson is the founder and chairman of The RLJ Companies, a business network providing strategic investments in a diverse portfolio of companies in the financial services, real estate, hospitality, film production, automotive and gaming industries. Johnson became the first minority owner of a professional sports franchise, the Charlotte Bobcats, and later sold the majority stake to NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan. In 2006, Johnson founded Our Stories Films with partner Harvey Weinstein. The company focuses on family-friendly movies intended for African-American audiences, including the 2011 comedy feature Jumping the Broom. Johnson’s RLJ Companies has also introduced two paid channels on YouTube as part of a pilot program on the popular video-sharing site. The first channel, OnCue, offers movies, documentaries and other programming targeted to African American and urban audiences, and the second, Acorn TV, specializes in British drama and mysteries.

DAVID E. KELLEY, prolific and award-winning television writer and producer, is recognized as one of the finest in the business. He is the creator of hit shows including Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, Boston Legal and Harry’s Law, as well as several films. Kelley is one of very few screenwriters to have had shows run on all four of the top commercial U.S. television networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC).The former Boston-based attorney is famous for writing most of his scripts on a yellow legal pad. He wrote his first screenplay, the courtroom comedy From the Hip (which later became a 1986 film), while practicing real estate and criminal law. The screenplay was shared with Steven Bochco, a television producer who was looking for legal-minded writers to work on his new drama series, L.A. Law. The young lawyer started as a story editor and writer of the show and later became executive producer. Kelley left in 1992 to start his own series, Picket Fences. By 1999 he had emerged as a leader in primetime television, involved in no fewer than five series. During the 1999-2000 season, Kelley accomplished the singular feat of winning Emmys for both Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Comedy Series for The Practice and Ally McBeal, both focused on law firms in Boston. As a writer and producer, Kelley has amassed a total of 10 individual Emmys and has been responsible for 30 different actors and actresses winning their own Emmy Awards across many competitive categories.

RICHARD E. WILEY, former Chairman, Commissioner and General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission, was a leading force in the effort to foster increased competition and lessened regulation in the communications field during his tenure at the FCC in the 1970s. He also played a pivotal role in the development of HDTV, serving for nine years as Chairman of the FCC’s Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service. Wiley has been called the “Father of High-Definition Television” (Globe and Mail), as well as the “Most Influential Media and Telecommunications Lawyer in the U.S.” (International Herald Tribune), and one of the top “100 Men of the Century” (Broadcasting & Cable). Wiley has received an Emmy Award, the Electronic Industries’ Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Broadcasters and the North American Broadcasters Association’s International Achievement Award. He is currently senior partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm Wiley Rein, where he heads the firm’s Communications Practice, the largest in the nation, representing communications organizations including Verizon, AT&T, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Newspaper Association of America, Motorola, CBS, Belo, Gannett, Sirius/XM, Emmis and LG Electronics. Wiley is a frequent author and lecturer on telecommunications and information law.

RICHARD LEIBNER, founder and president of N.S. Bienstock Inc., is one of America’s most successful and powerful talent agents in broadcast journalism. Leibner has pioneered representation of televison news talent, driving up the market for broadcasters over the past forty years. He has represented such icons as Eric Sevareid, Dan Rather, Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley, Maria Shriver, Paula Zahn, Chris Mathews, Andy Rooney, Diane Sawyer, Bob Schieffer, Steve Kroft and Morley Safer. Leibner’s success stems from his representation style and the salaries he commands for his clients. According to The New York Times Magazine, “Leibner with a phone is like Mantle with a bat.” In 1963, Leibner went to work for his family’s accounting firm. The serendipitous meeting of his father Sol and insurance salesman Nate Bienstock, both having author John Steinbeck as a client, brought the three men together. One year later they co-founded N.S. Bienstock Inc. and he began his career as a talent agent to the up-and- coming stars in local and national broadcast news. Leibner has been profiled in numerous publications including The New York Times, Broadcasting & Cable, New York Magazine, People, Electronic Media, Television Week, US Magazine, Worth, Forbes, O-The Oprah Magazine and the New York Observer. In 2004, he was honored by his alma mater, The University of Rochester, with the Meliora Citation for Career Achievement – the university’s most prestigious alumni award for professional excellence.

CAROLE COOPER, an agent for thirty-five years and Leibner’s wife and partner, is recognized as one of the most experienced and respected talent agents in the business. Cooper started out representing local news reporters and today has a client list of national news stars including Bill O’Reilly, Anderson Cooper, Lara Logan and Megyn Kelly. Many of them have been clients since their early careers in local television. Cooper has developed relationships with the industry’s most powerful executives and creative forces. From local and network news to programming, syndication and new media, she has access to a wide range of decision-makers. Cooper has helped local talent reach their goals of network television and has helped news talent make the transition into syndicated television including the likes of Harvey Levin, Linda Bell Blue and Judge Marilyn Milian. In 2001 Cooper was lauded for brokering the deal that made Aaron Brown the “new defining face” of CNN. Cooper and Leibner, along with sons Adam and Jonathan, have been listed among the “29 Big Apple “power families” profiled by the New York Observer. Electronic Media has called Cooper Bienstock’s “secret weapon” and in its issue featuring “The 10 Most Powerful People in TV News” as the agent who negotiated “the most intriguing news contracts written in the last year.” For 10 years, N.S. Bienstock Inc. has been the only agency reported on this list. Carole was also named to The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment 2012: Power 100 list, THR’s annual ranking of the most powerful female leaders in the entertainment industry.

The Library of American Broadcasting (LAB) — located at the University of Maryland — is entering its 42nd year serving as the national information resource for the radio and television industries and the academic communities that rely upon it for depth and expertise. Its collections of historic documents, professional papers, oral and video histories, books and photographs are among the nation’s most extensive. LAB is evolving from a conventional library into a “homepage” for the world at large, no longer confined to responding to constituents one at a time but reaching thousands simultaneously through the Internet. Industry outreach includes lectures, symposia, print and the broadcast media themselves. LAB’s chair is Virginia Hubbard Morris, president of Hubbard Radio, based in Minneapolis- St. Paul; the president/CEO is Donald West, veteran broadcast journalist and former assistant to the president of CBS Inc. (serving as chief aide to the legendary Frank Stanton); the dean of libraries at the University of Maryland is Patricia Steele, and the curator is Chuck Howell.

Library of American Broadcasting Foundation: 703-548-6090, [email protected]

Reservations for tables and individual tickets to the event may be arranged through Jessica Wolin at 212-685-4233 or by email at [email protected].

For press, contact Ellyn Fisher, 212-984-1964, [email protected].

The Library has been honoring leaders in the broadcasting industry annually since 2003 —its list of Giants will total 170 after this year’s inductions. Previous honorees include industry founders Guglielmo Marconi, David Sarnoff of RCA and NBC, William S. Paley and Frank Stanton of CBS, Leonard Goldenson of ABC, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Philo Farnsworth, H. V. Kaltenborn, Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Arthur Godfrey, Paul Harvey, Charlie Rose, Ken Burns, Johnny Carson, Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Christiane Amanpour, Lowry Mays and Tim Russert, among a roll of honor that is available upon request.

Filed Under: Giants, News

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