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Introducing the Class of 2010
by
Rebecca Barus
The Buffalo
Broadcasters Association, in its
14th year, proudly welcomes the
Class of 2010 into its Hall of
Fame. One of the missions of the
Buffalo Broadcasters is to celebrate
great broadcasting, both past and
present.
Ed
Kilgore
A prestigious sports anchor
for almost 40 years and NYS Emmy
winner, Ed Kilgore continues to take
on the role as sports director for
WGRZ-TV in Buffalo. Holding several
roles as a sports anchor, host and
photographer, Ed has watched and
played sports all across the
country.
Born and raised in Oregon,
Ed attended high school in Macon,
Missouri, and continued his
 education
at the University of Missouri on a
partial baseball scholarship. He
graduated with a journalism degree
in 1969 and decided to combine both
his love for sports and journalism
by becoming a sports anchor.
Kilgore landed his first job in 1970
as an anchor/photographer for
WOAI-TV (NBC) in San Antonio,
Texas. He became the weekend sports
anchor/ photographer for KTRK-TV
(ABC) in Houston in 1972, and in
1973 he decided to move to Buffalo
to work for WGRZ-TV.
Kilgore has hosted several
shows in his career, such as the Lou
Saban Show in 1973, the Chuck Knox
Show in 1979 and 1980 and the Jim
Kelly Show from 1987 to 1997. He
also became the intermission host
for Sabres television on WGRZ-TV.
He won his first NYS Emmy for the
Buffalo market in 1993 for "Best
Sports Reporting." Kilgore is very
involved with the community, serving
on the Sabres Hall of Fame Selection
Committee, Buffalo Sports Hall of
Fame Advisory Committee and Bills
Wall of Fame committee. Ed is
honored in the Kids Escaping Drugs
Hall of Fame.
Ed currently resides in
Orchard Park with his wife, Debra.
He has a daughter, Shannon, who is
following in his footsteps as a
University of Missouri Journalism
2009 graduate and now a student at
the University of the Arts London.
In Ed's spare time, he likes to
golf, run, hike, and travel. His
interests include both music and
cosmology.
Frank Benny
Frank Benny was known as
"the master of the one-liners,"
according to companion Lynda
Sawkes. His career lasted over four
decades. Benny was a very popular
radio and TV personality with a
well-known on-screen presence and
humorous personality.
Benny, born in Chicago,
started out his successful career at
KISN in Oregon in 1963, then
 came
to WGR Radio for 19 years, during
which WGR won Billboard magazine's
radio station of the year award in
1977.
Benny's popularity on radio
led to an offer to become the
weatherman for WGR-TV Channel 2 at
both 6pm and 11pm, and he hosted
"Bowling for Dollars" five nights a
week, along with doing telethons and
a movie matinee.
Benny did the morning show
for WYRK in 1985 and worked for WBEN
from 1986 to 1989. He used his wit
on WENG, in Sarasota, FL, in 2004,
where he co-hosted "The Morning
Magazine" with Scott Holcomb. "It
could be total gibberish, but his
delivery was so great, listeners
would buy it," according to Dave
McClure, his WENG boss. Benny's
traveling experience and the fact
that he lived all across the United
States gave him a lot to talk about
at the small radio station. Benny
gave callers all kinds of advice,
whether it was a few simple words of
knowledge or advice about golf, one
of his passions.
Benny died at age 67, on May
9, 2005, in Englewood, FL, from
complications of pneumonia. Sawkes
stated, "He would have liked to be
remembered with a microphone in one
hand and a golf club in the other."
Les
Trent
They say people notice when
Les Trent is in town; whether the
"Inside Edition" correspondent is
reporting top stories on national
television or the fact that he is
visiting his kids in Buffalo.
 Les
Trent got an early start on his
journalism career out of Seneca
College in Toronto. He began his
broadcast career in Buffalo radio in
1981, starting as a DJ at WACJ-FM,
followed by WUWU-FM and
WBLK-FM. Trent moved to
television in 1984 as an associate
producer at WIVB , then proceeded to
weekends at WGRZ-TV, where he and
Beverly Armstrong were the first
African-American anchor team in
Buffalo. Les Trent fulfilled his
dream of working among
personalities, such as Irv Weinstein
and Tom Jolls.
Les Trent covered stories
like the Oakland Hills firestorm,
earthquakes and gay rights movements
in San Francisco at TV station KPIX
after 1990. He covered the OJ
Simpson trial, Tonya Harding and the
Olympics and Princess Diana's
funeral while working for King
World. He left "American Journal"
in 1998 to work for the
entertainment show, "Extra," for two
years. Trent returned to King
World's "Inside Edition " after 2000
to cover more top-breaking news
stories like the 9/11 attacks, the
Cannes Film Festival and Hurricane
Katrina, in which he was part of the
first camera crew to get inside the
nursing home in New Orleans where 34
people died. Les Trent has truly
done it all, from interviews with
President Clinton, searching for
chess champion Bobby Fischer in
Iceland to covering Michael
Jackson's legal problems and
celebrity Britney Spears.
Les Trent has "never had a
boring day on the job." For over 14
years when Les Trent was not
working, the proud father traveled
from his home in Newark, NJ, to
Buffalo to visit his kids.
William Siemering
"Think for a moment what your
life would be like without public
radio," reflected the founding
president of Developing Radio
Partners, in which Siemering
dedicatedly brings information
internationally to some of the
poorest countries in Africa and
Asia.
Siemering began his radio
career after graduating the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, an d
becoming a teacher in Madison.
Years later as general manager of
WBFO, based at the University at
Buffalo, Siemering originated 25
hours a week of programming from a
satellite studio on Jefferson
Avenue, giving Buffalo's
African-American community a voice
on the radio. Siemering's belief
that radio should be led by the
people developed into "This Is
Radio," a magazine show on WBFO.
Siemering's student staff
stayed on the air and provided live
coverage of the unrest that swept
across the Main Street campus in the
spring of 1970. "The Buffalo
newspapers and TV stations weren't
always getting the story right,"
Terry Gross, host of the NPR program
Fresh Air and a UB student at the
time, said in an article for the
publication, "UB Today."
"Furthermore, no one, from students
to the police to UB administration,
was listening to each other. Bill's
goal was to have this kind of safe
place -- the radio studio -- where
people could come and talk to each
other."
In 1970, Siemering moved to
Washington, DC, becoming the first
program director of National Public
Radio and creating the fledgling
network's flagship show, "All Things
Considered." Later, he served in
management roles for KCCM in
Minnesota, Minnesota Public Radio
and WHYY in Philadelphia, where he
launched "Fresh Air" as a national
daily program.
It was in 1995 when Siemering
began his overseas and international
work in radio. He received the
Knight International Press
Fellowship and a MacArthur
Foundation Fellowship. His travels
as a program manager for the Open
Society Institute have taken him
to Mozambique, Moldova, Macedonia,
Ukraine and Mongolia.
Siemering has been the
recipient of several awards for his
numerous radio accomplishments, such
as the Edward R. Murrow Award from
the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. He has received
honorary degrees from Arcadia
University and the University at
Buffalo.
Brian Meyer
Brian Meyer's interest in
journalism dates back to the fifth
grade at Buffalo Public School #56
when he was named managing editor of
the class newspaper. A year later,
he founded his own neighborhood
newspaper. The Elmwood Courier
survived for nearly three years and
distributed several thousand copies
over that period.
 As
a teenager, Meyer also became a
correspondent for weekly newspapers
operated by Rocket Publications
founder David Gallagher.
Meyer became involved in the
newspaper at St. Joseph's Collegiate
Institute, serving as editor of
The Student Prints in his
junior and senior years. When he
was accepted at Marquette
University's College of Journalism,
the challenging job market spurred
Meyer to diversify his interests.
While still pursuing his studies in
print journalism, he became involved
in the campus radio station. He was
named news director in his sophomore
year and became the station's
general manager in his final two
years at Marquette.
While Meyer never took a
single radio or television course,
he realized that he loved the
immediacy of broadcasting. He was
offered his full-time job while he
was still a senior at Marquette.
Meyer became public affairs director
of WBCS radio in Milwaukee, hosting
several weekly programs, anchoring
newscasts and reporting on crime,
government and school district
issues.
Less than a year after he
graduated from college, WBEN called
Meyer and offered a reporting job in
Buffalo. Meyer had served as a WBEN
intern a few years earlier. Meyer
returned to Buffalo in 1982,
starting his illustrious career as a
street reporter.
He continued to report on
WBEN for more than 15 years, serving
as managing editor in his final
decade at the station. Meyer
covered a wide range of local
issues, including the reign of
feisty Mayor Jimmy Griffin, hundreds
of prominent court cases and
economic development. He covered
four presidential conventions, a
presidential inauguration, the
aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in
Florida and the return of Terry
Anderson to the United States. He
also spent nearly a month in Los
Angeles covering the first O.J.
Simpson trial.
Meyer left WBEN in late 1997
to become a business reporter at
The Buffalo News. A few years
later, he became the newspaper's
city government reporter.
The award-winning journalist
has taught communications courses at
several colleges since the late
1980s. He currently teaches courses
at Buffalo State College and
Medaille College.
He is founder and president
of Western New York Wares Inc., a
publishing company that has produced
more than 60 books that focus on
various aspects of the
Buffalo-Niagara region. He has
authored or co-authored six of these
books, including "The World
According to Griffin."
Meyer is a treasurer of the
Greater Buffalo Chapter of the
Society of Professional Journalists'
College Scholarship Fund.
Mary
Brady
A Buffalonian right from the
start, Mary Brady joined the staff
at WEBR as a switchboard operator
after graduating from college in
1946. She always loved music and
began to work with the record
librarian on a part time basis.
When that librarian left the station
in 1947, the job was offered to
Mary. "In those days," Mary
recounts, "we would pull half-hour
segments of music by artists like
Guy Lombardo or Sammy Kaye. We also
had a subscription service and took
afternoon shows from the Mutual
Network."
In the 1950s, the station's
morning host started adding time,
temperature and news items. Within a
few years, the half hour segments
and network service were gone. They
were replaced by disc jockeys and
more music-centered programming.
Bob Wells used his afternoon show to
develop the Hi-Teen Club, where area
teens could dance to Rock 'n' Roll
records or live music. The Hi-Teen
show was the model for Dick Clark's
American Bandstand.
Record promoters, like Jack
Reilly and Frankie Nestro, stopped
by the station on a weekly basis to
talk about music and occasionally
bring a star to the station.
As musical tastes and
programming changed, Mary had to
track down the new music and make it
available. Music went from the
relatively short "Sing Along with
Mitch" era to contemporary and then
rock. Music was always changing,
but it was always in good hands with
Mary.
Mary's career spanned the end
of the fabled Golden Age of Radio
through the transition to easy
listening and contemporary. She
often had to develop her own
cataloging systems. When a harried
production director would run into
the library to ask for a specific
piece of music or "something that
sounds like" something else, she
could point, name an album, and say
"blue jacket, second side, on the
3rd shelf in that cabinet," and be
right.
When Western New York Public
Broadcasting purchased the signal,
news and talk took the place of the
contemporary format and Mary, who
had always programmed the music on
the 94.5FM side in addition to
WEBR-AM, began helping Peter
Goldsmith develop an entirely new
library for WNED-FM's classical
music service.
While she retired in 1999,
Mary continues to volunteer,
answering phones during membership
drives on WNED AM & FM.
Margaret Russ
"My mother's older sister
bought a radio in the early 1930s.
The world to which we were
introduced was amazing. It
certainly had some influence on my
career choice," noted Margaret. She
graduated from D'Youville College in
August 1945 and applied for a job in
radio at the Courier-Express-owned
radio station, WEBR. She retired
from the same station, now owned by
the Western New York Broadcasting
Association, in December 1990.
Russ started out as an "Extra
Girl," which meant working wherever
she was needed in promotion,
programming, music library, copy
etc. Eventually, Maggie was
assigned to promotion. There, she
worked as "chaperone" on the popular
Hi-Teen Show, a program broadcast
from the Dellwood Ballroom at Main
and Utica, where area teenagers
danced to the current records of the
day. Bob Wells was the well-known
host. Dick Clark modeled
his national TV program after it.
Eventually, she worked in traffic
and then became secretary to General
Manager Cy King, followed by Bill
Doerr and finally, David Leopold.
"I used to say that I went
with the building when it was sold
once, and then once again," Maggie
recalled. The first sale was to
Bill McKibben. The second time, it
was sold to theWestern New Public
Broadcasting Association. When WEBR
Newsradio 970 and WNED-FM came on
the air, Maggie worked for General
Manager Bill Devine, followed by Bob
Goldfarb and Dick Daly. "The
introduction of the computer made it
easier to handle traffic, continuity
and even the on-air book reviews
which I did," she recalls. After
retirement in 1990, she continued to
assist WNED with fund drives and the
auction.
"The Courier Express had
insisted that the radio airwaves
belonged to the citizens of the
United States, and we were permitted
to make a living as broadcasters
through licensing. We should always
be aware of our debt to them and do
our best to serve them responsibly,"
she said.
Listen to an
audio report on this year's
inductees produced by WBFO's Mark
Scott.
2010
Tim Russert Medal of Merit Award
The Buffalo Broadcasters
Association is honoring Amanda
Ciavarri as its 2010 Tim Russert
Medal of Merit Award winner, in
which she will received a $1000
scholarship from Time Warner Cable
and the Broadcasters Association. As
a graduate of Jandoli School of
Journalism, Ciavarri has been one of
the brightest students in years in
the broadcast concentration, and she
shined as an intern with WROC-TV
newsroom in Rochester. She was also
selected for the Bob Koop Award,
which honors an outstanding student
journalist in St.
Bonaventure's broadcast program. A
manda is an excellent reporter,
anchor, producer and creative
videographer, and her some of her
achievements can be seen in her work
for SBU-TV's weekly newscasts.
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.
2009 Award Winner: Cassandra
Eldred (Canisius College)
2008 Award Winner: Amanda
Hartman (Brockport State College
Golden Anniversaries -- 50 years of
Broadcasting in Western New York:
The Buffalo Broadcasters
Association is also celebrating a
Golden Anniversary. This year
WNED-FM is being recognized for its
50 years of broadcasting in Western
New York.
WNED-FM, Buffalo's classical
music radio station at 94.5FM and
home of radio show "A Prairie Home
Companion," was launched in 1960.
It was formerly under the name
WEBR-FM and was later changed to
WBCE, then WREZ, in the 1970s. The
Western New York Public Broadcasting
Association bought the station in
1976 and renamed it WNED-FM. In
1977, the station began to offer
classical music. It is the only
station to broadcast classical music
24 hours a day in the Buffalo and
Toronto areas, and it also
simulcasts its signal in Jamestown
on WNJA.
The Buffalo Broadcasters
Association Hall of Fame Dinner is
Tuesday, September 21st with dinner
at 5:30 p.m. and the program
starting at 7:00 p.m. in the studios
of WNED-TV. Talk show host
SandyBeach of WBEN-AM and former
news anchor Susan Banks of
WKBW-TVand WGRZ-TV will be the MCs
for the evening. Tickets for
members are $40 and nonmembers are
$50 and can be purchased in advance
at www.buffalobroadcasters.com or
by calling 716-873-2233.
One other
Hall of Fame note. BBA president
Dave Gillen is looking for
volunteeers to serve on the HOF
nominating committee.
"Basically, we need some people who
can research potential nominees,
finding out background info on them
and doing some of the legwork for
their biographies," Gillen said.
"Ideally, I'd like to have an
ongoing list of names of people who
should be considered for the HOF,
complete with bio info and why we
should put them on the ballot."
If you'd
be interested in serving on the
committee, please contact Gillen at
bflobroadcasters@aol.com . |
5,"
"News 4 at 5:30," "News 4 at 6,"
"News 4 at 11" and "The 10 O'clock
News" on WIVB-TV's sister station
CW23 WNLO. However, WGRZ, Ch. 2 was
close behind at 6am and 11pm.
"Still Talkin' TV," a blog written
by former Buffalo News
television critic Alan Pergament,
noted TV news viewership in Buffalo
was up ten percent during the July
ratings period. 
board
of the Buffalo Broadcasters
Association, has added another
milestone to his Hall of Fame
career. The suspect in the City
Grill shootings that left four
people dead and another four wounded
turned himself into Newberg on
August 25th. Riccardo McCray, 23,
told Newberg he wanted to end things
peacefully after he learned that
police were searching for him. When
asked what his concerns were, McCray
responded: "The police. Why are
they going like this toward me?" 
