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| National Radio Hall Of Fame 2011 Induction Ceremony Coming Saturday In Chicago |
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| Written by Larz | |||
| Monday, 31 October 2011 08:35 | |||
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National Radio Hall Of Fame 2011 Induction Ceremony will be taking place in downtown Chicago this Saturday, November 5th. It will be the first-ever induction ceremony held at Hall of Fame's new home, the Museum of Broadcast Communications, located at 360 North State State Street.
The black-tie gala event will be hosted by Radio Hall of Famer and famed television interviewer Larry King. The presenters speaking at the event this year include WBBM-TV's Bill Kurtis, WGN-AM's Orion Samuelson, television host Jerry Springer, legendary San Francisco Giants sportscaster Jon Miller, NPR's Susan Stamberg, mystery writer Sara Paretsky and country singer Rex Allen Jr. Music at the ceremony will be by The Alan Gresik Swing Shift Orchestra, which be performing a salute to the big band era as part of the show. Jim Bohannon of Dial Global (formerly Westwood One) will be the announcer for the live radio broadcast distributed by Premiere. This will be the thirteenth year in a row for Bohannon serving as the announcer. Bohannon is himself a past Radio Hall of Fame inductee and one of the twenty-seven members of the NRHOF Steering Committee. The radio broadcast will begin Saturday at 9:00pm CST. This year's ceremony will not be a star-studded as years past, but is already one of the most controversial ones in many years. The controversies come from the fact that this year's inductees were not put up for a vote, but instead decided by the NRHOF Steering Committee who chose to bypass their own induction rules. The committee felt that the Radio Hall of Fame, which will soon be opening up as a permanent exhibit within the new Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, needed to have more shows from radio's "golden age." Most of the inductees had been passed over in the past, but were deemed deserving of the honor this year. Adding to the controversy this year was the one exception to the previous reasons. A person is being inducted who had never been nominated or considered before, and who had a very short and forgettable, at best, radio career, calling baseball games on Des Moines and Davenport, IA radio stations for only a few years. That person is Republican political icon and former President Ronald Reagan. The induction has upset quite a few, who see this as more of a political statement by the conservative Chairman of the NRHOF Steering Committee Bruce DuMont than a true honoring of radio excellence. The 2011 inductees into the National Radio Hall of Fame were announced in late June. The inductees are: Graham McNamee, H.V. Kaltenborn, Ronald Reagan, "WLS National Barn Dance," "The Great Gildersleeve," "Gangbusters," and "Suspense." Tickets to Saturday's gala event are still available for $250 each at this link HERE. For those who cannot attend, but still wish to support the Radio Hall of Fame, charity raffle tickets are being sold. The raffle tickets can be purchased for $20 each, or 5 for $50 or 15 for $100. Prizes include: two first-class round trip tickets on American Airlines, Chicago Bears autographed memorabilia, Chicago White Sox tickets, Steppenwolf Theatre tickets, Chicago Shakespeare Theater tickets, hotel stays, fine restaurant gift certificates and much more. Raffle tickets and more information about the event can be found on the Radio Hall of Fame's website, RadioHOF.org. The Museum of Broadcast Communications, which will house the National Radio Hall of Fame exhibit, is completing the construction of the giant new facility. It is expected to be finally open to the public in the first half of next year. 
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