3 Broadcasters Make It to Nebraska Hall of Fame

The Nebraska Broadcasters Association (NBA) will welcome Bill Kelly, Val Lane and Otis Twelve into the NBA Hall of Fame on the evening of August 8 in La Vista, during the NBA Annual Convention. Established in 1972, these inductees will bring the total number of NBA Hall of Fame members to 115.

Kelly has provided over four decades of service to broadcast journalism in Nebraska. His career began in 1981 as a political and investigative reporter for WOWT-TV in Omaha before taking an interim producer's role in 1989 at KOLN & KGIN-TV in Lincoln. In 1990, Bill joined NET Television/Radio (now known as Nebraska Public Media) as a producer/reporter. Kelly has earned more than 40 first place state, regional and national awards for reporting and production excellence, in television and radio, including Regional Emmys and AP awards.

Long before the show "Better Call Saul" gained popularity, the cry from dozens of Nebraska radio stations has been "Better Call Val." Val Lane has been providing outstanding engineering support for more than 40 years across Nebraska and remains in steady demand. From overseeing the design and construction of everything from remote broadcast headsets to 1,000-foot towers, Lane still travels Nebraska upgrading, modifying, repairing, replacing and building for many Nebraska broadcasting companies.

The name Otis Twelve is iconic to two generations of people growing up in Omaha. He got his start as the host of "Midnight Mondo" on KQKQ in 1973. Six years later he began his rise to even greater fame as the morning host of "Otis Twelve with Diver Dan Doomey" on KEZO. The show brought a new style of morning radio to Omaha, incorporating a significant amount of produced humor that quickly resulted in the top-rated program in the market. Demonstrating his versatility and adaptability, he moved on to do mornings at KFAB in 1993 and at KKCD in 1994 before becoming a talk show host on Omaha's KKAR from 1999 to 2001. Today, Twelve is the morning classical music host on KVNO-FM in Omaha.