Thursday, June 09, 2005
Notes From East Peoria
A couple quick notes before I head back to Chicago...after participating in what has been a very successful Illinois Broadcasters Association convention in East Peoria.
No Silver Dome awards for WLS last night. We were finalists in a couple of news categories, but did not win. That's okay...I'm still proud of the product our news staff puts on the table every day. Awards are very subjective...of course, much more so when you don't win! Haha : )
There were two highlights for me at the Silver Dome banquet...
One was to see my good friend Dave Dahl of WMBD-AM in Peoria win for best newscast in his radio division. Besides being one of the nicest people on the planet, Dave is also one of the hardest working broadcast journalists I know. He often makes the rest of us look like slackers. With as hard as he works, I think Dave could fill 59 minutes of every hour with news...and still have some left over! Dave also has an excellent blog, on which he talks about work, family and life in general.
One more kudo for Dave...his station, WMBD-AM, won Station of the Year honors in its division from the IBA. Congrats to Dave and WMBD!
I was also thrilled to see Lisa Miller of WMBD-TV in Peoria win a reporting award at the Silver Domes. I first met Lisa when she was a student at the University of Illinois. It was obvious, even then, that she would be an excellent broadcast journalist. To see the pure joy and excitement on Lisa's face when her name was announced as the winner - she was still glowing two hours later - was a real high for me. As INBA president, it's always a thrill to see some one who started in our organization as a student achieve success at the professional level. Way to go, Lisa!
On a somewhat related note...the home of WMBD-TV anchor Amy Paul was struck by lightning during yesterday's violent storms. The lightning strike started a fire, which caused some damage to Amy's home. Thankfully, Amy - who was home at the time - was not hurt. Amy was scheduled to emcee the Sliver Dome awards...but had to cancel for obvious reasons.
That's all for now. Jeanne is on her way to Los Angeles...and I need to head back to Chicago. I'll be "batching it" for the next week and a half. Blah.
No Silver Dome awards for WLS last night. We were finalists in a couple of news categories, but did not win. That's okay...I'm still proud of the product our news staff puts on the table every day. Awards are very subjective...of course, much more so when you don't win! Haha : )
There were two highlights for me at the Silver Dome banquet...
One was to see my good friend Dave Dahl of WMBD-AM in Peoria win for best newscast in his radio division. Besides being one of the nicest people on the planet, Dave is also one of the hardest working broadcast journalists I know. He often makes the rest of us look like slackers. With as hard as he works, I think Dave could fill 59 minutes of every hour with news...and still have some left over! Dave also has an excellent blog, on which he talks about work, family and life in general.
One more kudo for Dave...his station, WMBD-AM, won Station of the Year honors in its division from the IBA. Congrats to Dave and WMBD!
I was also thrilled to see Lisa Miller of WMBD-TV in Peoria win a reporting award at the Silver Domes. I first met Lisa when she was a student at the University of Illinois. It was obvious, even then, that she would be an excellent broadcast journalist. To see the pure joy and excitement on Lisa's face when her name was announced as the winner - she was still glowing two hours later - was a real high for me. As INBA president, it's always a thrill to see some one who started in our organization as a student achieve success at the professional level. Way to go, Lisa!
On a somewhat related note...the home of WMBD-TV anchor Amy Paul was struck by lightning during yesterday's violent storms. The lightning strike started a fire, which caused some damage to Amy's home. Thankfully, Amy - who was home at the time - was not hurt. Amy was scheduled to emcee the Sliver Dome awards...but had to cancel for obvious reasons.
That's all for now. Jeanne is on her way to Los Angeles...and I need to head back to Chicago. I'll be "batching it" for the next week and a half. Blah.
