|
2011 Inductees
 |
Jacquie Walker
Jacquie Walker is the only woman in Buffalo
broadcasting history who has achieved the milestone of anchoring at one
television station for 28 years. Working as a church organist throughout
college, Jacquie graduated from Michigan State University in Advertising
Management and completed additional communications coursework at Columbia
College. She anchored in both Rochester, NY and
Springfield, IL before coming to "News 4" in 1983. Jacquie's award-winning
coverage and anchoring of the 5, 6, and 11pm newscasts has won her two national
Edward R. Murrow awards for the coverage of the Continental Connection Flight
3407 crash. She also earned ten Emmy nominations, the Governor's Award for
Excellence in Communications, and numerous journalism awards from the Associated
Press, NYS Broadcasters Association, United Press International, and many other
groups.
Deeply involved in the community, Jacquie donates her
time to countless charitable organizations including Roswell Park Cancer
Institute, Hospice Buffalo, March of Dimes, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society,
Multiple Sclerosis Society and the National Conference for Community and
Justice. The American Association of University Women donated two $5,000
scholarships in her name to honor her community work.
Jacquie has truly done it all, from reporting at the
scene of the bombing at the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, to interviewing
State Supreme Court Justice Christopher Burns after sentencing the Bike Path
Killer, to covering fans at four Buffalo Bills' Super Bowls. When Jacquie is not
working, she is a very proud wife and a mother of two sons, a senior at the
University of Rochester and junior at Georgetown University Law Center. |
 |
Shane Gibson
A Buffalo radio legend, Shane Gibson, also known as
"The Cosmic Cowboy" and "Shane
Brother Shane," spent more than 30 years dedicating
his life in roles as both a deejay and program director all across the United
States.
Gibson began his radio career in 1962 at KFWB in Los
Angeles. A year later he moved to Montana working at several stations across the
state. In 1967, he traveled cross country to
WCOG in Greensboro, NC replacing Jack Armstrong as deejay and program director.
Shortly after that, he headed back west to KGA in Spokane, WA and then KMAK in
Salt Lake City, UT in 1969. Gibson finally came to Buffalo in 1973, where he
came in second place after doing a one show audition at WKBW for the "Great
American Talent Hunt."Several months later he replaced the winner as the KB
night man. He continued to work in Buffalo at WYSL in 1974, then WGR until 1985,
leaving as PD. He was brought back by the Rich family as program director again
until 1989.
Shane has received many honors, including being rated
the number one jock in America by Billboard Magazine in 1965 while
working at KUDI in Great Falls, Montana. Gibson moved back to Richmond, VA to
once again work at WLEE until finally leaving radio and joining the PGA in 2002.
He currently serves as a golf instructor in Richmond. |
 |
Jim McLaughlin
Born in New York City in 1934, Jim McLaughlin knew his
love for the limelight as a teenager. After moving to Rochester, NY in 1946, he
found his spotlight. Jim began playing the drums for a local band, acting in
school plays and playing high school basketball. He attended
Alfred University in 1953 for Liberal Arts, then Parks
College of St. Louis University in 1955 for Aeronautical Administration. He got
a job at American Airlines where he received his pilot's license at the early
age of 19. In the late 1950s, Jim took his quick-witted personality and drove
west to San Francisco with his brother to start a new life. He landed a job at
Las Vegas Hacienda Airlines and when not working played the drums for a
Dixieland band, and acted in Sausalito Playhouse, where he met his first wife.
After taking a three-week crash course in radio
broadcasting at the Chris Borden School of Modern Radio Technique, Jim changed
career paths in the early 1960s. He worked as a deejay for KNBA in Vallejo,
California taking the air name "Lucky Jim" because he didn't have to study and
always knew instinctively what to say. He began delivering the news at KFOG-FM
in San Francisco. In 1963, he married his fiancée Norma and they moved back
east. Jim became the news director at WRVM in Rochester in 1964. Jim, a veteran
of the U.S. Army, continued his career working in Buffalo as the news director
of WYSL in the late 1960s, WKBW from 1970 to 1978 and then at WBEN until he was
forced to retire due to health issues in 1987.
Jim will be remembered not only for his "throwaway
good looks" and flirtatious personality, but for being the first news director
to hire a full-time street reporter, a female news staff member, to use
co-anchors and to use short wave radio to cover international stories. In 1979,
he won the New York State Associated Press Award for WBEN's "Newsday," being the
best radio news program. Jim was also the only radio reporter allowed to cover
the 1971 Attica Prison riot from inside the prison. Jim died November 21, 1993
after a lengthy illness at the age of 59. |
 |
Dick Biondi
While Dick Biondi may play oldies, he has always been
young at heart throughout his 50-year radio career. Born in Endicott, NY, he
began at an early age after reading a commercial on WMBO in Auburn, NY, and
learning about broadcasting at WINR in Binghamton. His on-air radio career began
at WCBA 1350 AM in Corning and doing music shows at KYSL in Alexandria,
Louisiana. Career moves took him to stations in
Pennsylvania and Ohio, before signing on with Buffalo WKBW in 1958, one of KB's
long line of legendary night-time jocks. In 1960, while working at Chicago's WLS,
Biondi made parodies and recorded an album Dick Biondi's Favorites-the
Teenagers. He then moved to KRLA, Los Angeles' #1 Top 40 station, where he
created The Dick Biondi Road Show. He also hosted the nationally
syndicated Dick Biondi's Young America in 1964. He returned to
Chicago's WCFL in 1967 to do specialty shows Pop Goes the Music, In the
Beginning, This Is Elvis, Dick Biondi Labels the Blues, Dick Biondi and Friend
and a weekly "Vietnam Show." In 1972, Biondi worked at WBZ Boston, WSAI
Cincinnati and WNMB Myrtle Beach, where in 1976, Dick produced Dick Biondi's
Super Gold Rock and Roll, which was rebroadcast in 2010. Biondi was
"rediscovered" while working for WNMB when featured on a "Where are they now?"
type of TV program aired in Chicago.
Back in Chicago in 1984, Dick worked for WBBM-FM and
WJMK-FM. In 2006 he moved to WLS-FM, where he currently hosts True Oldies.
Last year, Columbia College presented Inside the Radio Studio with Dick
Biondi & Herb Kent-100 Years On the Air. The legendary DJ received
recognition for introducing the Rolling Stones at their Hollywood Bowl concerts,
the Gavin Top 40 Disc Jockey of the Year Award in 1961, being the first DJ in
America to play the Beatles in 1963, Billboard's most popular late evening DJ in
1966. The Chicago City Council named a street in his honor, called "Dick Biondi
Way," for his longevity in Chicago radio. He was honored in an exhibit at the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in
1998.
|
 |
Vic Baker
Working more than 42 years in the industry and
currently as news producer at Channel 4, Vic Baker's career dates back to high
school. There he learned every aspect of the operation by working as a news
writer, reporter and disc jockey for WLEA in his hometown of Hornell, NY. He
also did a reporting stint for the Elmira Star Gazette.
Fresh from graduating from Fredonia State College in
1969, Vic landed a job at WBUZ in Fredonia. He
later became the news director and assistant general manager at WCVF in
Fredonia, as well as the managing editor of the campus paper "The Leader." He
took on assignments in 1974 as a newscaster for WKSN-WHUG in Jamestown, news
director for WDOE in Dunkirk, before joining WBEN as a Saturday news writer for
Clint Buehlman's show and a weekday reporter. He was hired at Channel 4 as a
full-time reporter in 1975 and became a producer in 1976. Vic left in 1979 to
produce for WKBW-TV's Don Postles and Irv Weinstein at Eyewitness News
and 14 months later, returned to WIVB.
Vic had many accomplishments during those years, such
as producing a one-hour film documentary on Chautauqua Lake, covering the
Hallett triple murder trial and Ebersole kidnap murder trial in Mayville, and
driving 3,000 miles in six days during Tropical Storm Agnes floods in 1972. He
also produced the 11pm newscast on Channel 4 on the night of the Blizzard of
'77.
Away from broadcasting, Vic was a co-founder of
Habitat for Humanity in Lockport, led a development effort with his church that
brought Town Homes at Shawnee Landing into Wheatfield, worked on an anti-litter
campaign as an Eagle Scout project, was editor of the Presbyterian Progress, and
was a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit seeking environmental safety and justice in
his community.
Vic's successful career could be attributed to his
love for philosophy and the legacy built on old-fashioned values instilled by
his grandparents. Vic is proud of his wife, Judi, and their five children and
three grandchildren. |
 |
Don Angelo
Don enjoyed a 44-year career in broadcasting with both
on and off-air positions in news, programming, production, sales, management and
ownership positions at eight radio stations and four TV stations in four
northeastern markets. He began his career in news at WMNS in Olean as "Don
Michaels" in 1963. He became news director in 1964 at WHDL-AM/FM in Olean and
went on to WRIE in Erie, PA in 1970, where he became "Del Manning," doubling in
news and deejay work while also being the voice of WQLN-TV. He moved on to WIDG
in Michigan in 1972 as vice president/ general manager and later became
president and part-owner.
Don shifted his career to positions in sales and
marketing by returning to his hometown of
Buffalo in 1977 and joining WWOL-AM/FM as general sales manager. One year later,
Don worked as general sales manager at WYSL/WPHD and then WBUF, where he worked
as GSM helping to implement the station's format and call letter change to WFXZ.
In 1980, he moved on to TV as local sales manager at WUTV, Channel 29 and joined
Sherwin Greenberg Film/Video Productions in 1984 as director of sales and
marketing. Don joined TVX Corporation in 1987 as general sales manager to build
a new TV station in Buffalo, WNYB, Channel 49.
The Buffalo Sabres bought the station and moved Don to
the Sabres' corporate offices to head all their media sales including broadcast
and cable advertising, Aud signage and Goal magazine. Don's
responsibilities grew to head of media sales for Niagara Frontier Sports Network
across New York State, which later became Empire Sports Network. In 1992, he
joined the nation's largest cable company, TCI, as director of ad sales for the
Buffalo region and later helped negotiate the merger with Adelphia, where he
became director of sales, to create the ad sales cable interconnect for
the eight counties of WNY. In 1995, he joined WNED-TV to start up the station's
first PBS underwriting sales department. He joined the Gannett Corporation in
1997 as local sales manager at WGRZ-TV.
Don finished his career in management at WGRZ-TV,
retiring in 2007. He formed Angelo
Media Services and now works independently on projects
from film, music and political advertising along with serving on the boards of
the Buffalo Broadcasters Association and Buffalo Cultural Coalition. |
 |
Lauren Adams
2011 Tim Russert Medal of Merit Award Recipient
In another award, the
Tim Russert Medal of Merit will be given to Lauren Adams, who just
graduated from St. Bonaventure University. Miss Adams will receive a $1,000
scholarship from Greater Media, Inc. and the Buffalo Broadcasters Association.
As a graduate of the Jandoli School of Mass Communication and Journalism, Miss
Adams was the co-recipient of the Bob Koop Award, which honors an outstanding
student journalist in the St. Bonaventure broadcast program. She also interned
for her hometown WJET-TV in Erie, PA for two years. Lauren is pictured on
the left side of the photo.
The BBA created this award in 2008 in memory of Buffalo’s own Tim Russert
who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003. The award-open to juniors,
seniors, and recent graduates of Western New York’s colleges and
universities-was created to inspire young people who might follow in Russert’s
footsteps, pursuing his passions of broadcasting and journalism. |
 |
WNED-FM
The Buffalo Broadcasters Association is also celebrating a Golden
Anniversary.
In addition to the inductees, the Buffalo Broadcasters
Association is also celebrating the Golden anniversary of WUFO-AM, which is
celebrating 50 years of broadcasting in Western New York.
|
Click here to
buy Hall of Fame DVDs and Box sets
|
