By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Friday, October 2, 2015
For the second time in five years, News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB took home a coveted Marconi Award for best news/talk station from the National Association of Broadcasters. Better yet, the station won in its hometown at the downtown Marriott Marquis, where the NAB and the Radio Advertising Bureau were holding their annual Radio Show convention.
Several members of the WSB team were there to celebrate, including locally-based syndicated talk show hosts Clark Howard and Herman Cain, traffic team members Doug Turnball and "Smilin'" Mark McKay plus news anchor Chris Chandler and assistant program director Condace Pressley.
The crowd even got to hear Cain yell his famous phrase, "Aww Shucky Ducky!" (I will later post my interview with him about life on the radio since running for office.)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
While awards don't pay the bills or bring in listeners, they do provide a tangible morale boost for everyone connected to a station, a validation of their hard work by peers.
WSB wasn't the only victor. Members of Atlanta's Cox Media Group, which includes 59 radio stations nationwide, toasted champagne after the awards show at the Marriott's High Velocity bar after taking home a total of five awards last night. Hubbard Broadcasting, which has no Atlanta presence, won six. The two radio companies nabbed a majority of the 21 prizes.
Atlanta-based Cumulus Media - the nation's second largest radio company which saw two of its founders Lew and David Dickey lose their prime posts earlier this week - came home empty handed.
“I want to say thank you to the listeners because you make us who we are,” said Cain, the Atlanta-based syndicated talk show host heard mid-mornings on WSB and 2012 presidential candidate. “We are very proud of the product we put out every day, every hour, every day, every minute.”
Pete Spriggs, the program director, said Friday that he has received dozens of congratulations, as if the award were his alone.
"I've had to say to guy who does voiceovers for the station, 'Dude! This is your award too! You won it, too!' I told the overnight weekend news anchor the same things. At WSB, we're very lucky we have a really good staff and a big staff and a lot of people contribute to that."
The award, Spriggs said, is a reflection of WSB's efforts not just to provide news, weather and traffic to its listeners but provide solid community service efforts as well, such as its annual careathon for AFLAC Cancer Center and Clark Howard's Christmas drive to get toys to all foster children in Georgia.
"We want to use the power of our relationship with the listener to try to make a positive impact on the community," Spriggs said. "It may sound corny, but it's why we try to win these awards."
The Atlanta Journal Constitution and WSB are both part of Cox Media Group.
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