NAB Show NY To Celebrate '100 Years of Broadcast News’

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation (LABF) will co-produce “100 Years of Broadcast News: Challenges Met, Challenges Anew,” a celebration of broadcasting’s centennial with the industry’s leading voices and historians.

The NAB Show New York main stage session, hosted by Hubbard Radio Chair and CEO Ginny Morris and Beasley Media Group’s Chief Communications Officer Heidi Raphael, will be held October 21, 2020 at 2 p.m. and is available to all NAB Show New York attendees. Registration for the show is available at NABShowNY.com.

Ginny Morris

“Broadcasting has a storied past that needs to be commemorated and celebrated,” said Morris, who additionally serves as co-chair of the LABF. “The industry has been a resource of news, information and entertainment at every juncture of the last 100 years and will be well into the next century. The LABF is committed to preserving that history for the generations that will sustain the industry for the next 100 years.”

Marci Burdick, former head of Television for Schurz Communications and a one-time TV reporter and news director, will interview four award-winning journalists to reflect on broadcasting’s legacy of newsgathering and reporting over the past 100 years, and how broadcasting will face rising challenges in the years ahead. Burdick will conduct interviews with Ted Koppel, senior commentator on CBS “Sunday Morning” and former host of ABC News’ “Nightline”; Carol Marin, director of the DePaul Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence and political editor at WTTW-TV Chicago; acclaimed news anchor Soledad O’Brien, anchor of “Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien”; and former host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” Robert Siegel.

Heidi Raphael

“As we celebrate the heritage of broadcasting, it is impossible to overstate the impact of broadcast radio and television in shaping our history, culture and communities,” said NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith, who will deliver remarks at the event. “Millions of Americans have trusted broadcasters to be their eyes and ears during our nation’s most pivotal events, and broadcasters look forward to serving as a window to the world for the next 100 years.”

The program will also include a visit to the grounds of the old Westinghouse Electric works in Pittsburgh where the National Museum of Broadcasting has recreated the tiny rooftop shack that housed KDKA's transmitter and studio on the night of its historic November 2, 1920 broadcast of the election returns of the presidential race between Warren Harding and James Cox. The host for the visit will be KDKA morning newsman Larry Richert. The segment was made possible by the museum; the Regional Industrial Development Corp., which now owns the site; and video producer Michael Savisky of Make Roots.