March is the month when recommendations for Hall of Fame induction are encouraged!!!

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Interested broadcasters and members of the public are encouraged during March of each year to make their suggestions as to who should be inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame’s Induction Committee meets every April to consider those suggestions for inductees who will be honored in the fall at the organization’s Induction and Awards Luncheon.

To make your inductee suggestions, go to the massbroadcastersHOF.org website, and click on “Recommend an Inductee.”
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Who’s Who in Mass Broadcasting to be at Induction Ceremonies, Thu, 9-28

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Media Contact:  Burt Peretsky (781) 828-4714 executivedirector@massbroadcastersHOF.org

www.massbroadcastersHOF.org

 

A Veritable “Who’s Who” from Local Radio and TV Will Attend the Massachusetts Broadcasters

Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Luncheon, Thursday, September 28, at Quincy Marriott Hotel

 

Nine Individuals To Be Inducted

 

Hall of Fame to Honor: News7’s Byron Barnett, Retired Channel 38 General Manager Dan Berkery, KISS 108 Radio Personality and Co-Host of TV’s “Dining Playbook” Billy Costa, Western Mass News Primary TV Anchor Dave Madsen, WBZ Radio “NightSide” host Dan Rea, Boston Red Sox TV Color Analyst Jerry Remy, Former Chairman and CEO of Radio Powerhouse Greater Media, Inc. Peter Smyth, Recently Retired WBZ Radio News Anchor Diane Stern, AND Cramer Productions Founder and Chairman, the Late Tom Martin.

 

 

Nine distinguished individuals will be inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame at its 11th annual Induction and Awards Luncheon at the Boston Marriott Quincy Hotel on Thursday, Sept. 28.  Each will be “presented” by prominent broadcasting figures, as nearly two dozen past inductees and more than 300 other guests look on.

 

Slated for induction, and their presenters, are (alphabetically by inductees’ last names):

 

  • WHDH-TV 7NEWS reporter Byron Barnett, to be presented by three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and News7 reporter Jonathan Hall,
  • Retired TV38 General Manager and co-founder of New England Sports Network (NESN) Dan Berkery, to be presented by the recently named play-by-play voice of ESPN’s Monday Night Football, Sean McDonough,
  • KISS 108 Radio Personality and Host of TV’s “Dining Playbook” and “High School Quiz Show“ Billy Costa, to be presented by KISS 108 “Matty in the Morning” show host Matt Siegel,
  • Western Mass News Primary TV Anchor Dave Madsen, to be presented by John Hesslein, a Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame Board member and Vice President and General Manager of Western Massachusetts’ television stations WSHM, WGGB, and WFSB, better known as CBS 3, ABC40, and FOX 6,
  • Cramer Productions Founder and Chairman Tom Martin, who passed away on July 27 of this year. Martin’s presenter is 2010 Hall of Fame inductee S. James Coppersmith, who served WCVB-TV, Channel 5 as Vice President and General Manager from 1982 to 1989 and as President and GM from 1990 to 1994. Mr. Martin will receive the Hall of Fame’s “Pioneer Award,” which is presented to individuals or organizations fundamental to the industry but not readily recognized as broadcasters, per se,
  • WBZ Radio “NightSide” host Dan Rea, to be presented by WBZ Radio’s Peter Casey, the veteran director of news & programming for the station,
  • Boston Red Sox TV Color Analyst Jerry Remy, who will be present and introduced by NESN President Sean McGrail,
  • Former Chairman and CEO of Radio Powerhouse Greater Media, Inc. Peter Smyth, who will be introduced by Loren Owens, who with his WROR Radio partner Wally Brine was a 2013 Hall of Fame inductee, and
  • Recently Retired WBZ Radio News Anchor Diane Stern, who will be introduced by her husband, the former long-time WCVB-TV NewsCenter 5 executive Neil Ungerleider, who recently retired as the station’s Digital & Multimedia Manager.

 

Looking on among the (to date) more than 325 guests, will be the following past Hall of Fame inductees (others may be added before the event):

 

 

  • Bob Lobel
  • Hall of Fame Board member Phil Weiner
  • Natalie Jacobson
  • Former Hall of Fame Board member Paul LaCamera
  • Tom McAuliffe Sr.
  • Ken Meyer
  • Hall of Fame Board member Jim Boyd
  • Ken Carter
  • Ron Della Chiesa
  • David Mugar
  • Hall of Fame Board member Mike Addams
  • Former Hall of Fame Board member Dick Flavin
  • Dave O’Gara
  • Don Batting
  • Hall of Fame Board member Ed Perry
  • Bob Copeland
  • Tommy Heinsohn
  • Charlie Ballantine
  • Nat Whittemore


 

In addition, most of the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors will be present, a group that includes general managers and other key executives of Bay State radio and television stations.

 

Hall of Fame President Peter Brown, Principal of Peter Brown Communications, called this year’s inductees “as impressive a group of broadcasters as there is anywhere and a collective credit to the radio and television industry of the Bay State.” Former long-time WBZ Radio host Jordan Rich, a Hall of Fame Board member, will emcee the luncheon.  Tickets for the luncheon are $75 each and may be purchased via the Hall of Fame’s website, www.massbroadcastersHOF.org.

 

The Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame conducts a nomination and selection process each year to induct individuals who have made major contributions to Massachusetts broadcasting and broadcasting in general. A permanent Hall of Fame exhibit with plaques representing all past inductees is on display opposite the Akillian Gallery on the Canton campus of Massasoit Community College.

 

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The Hall of Fame’s 2017 Slate of Inductees to be Announced Soon

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The “Class of 2017” — the outstanding broadcasters who will be inducted on Thursday, September 28, 2017, into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame will be announced shortly, and our website form to buy tickets for the Induction and Awards Luncheon will be created soon.  As they say in broadcasting, “STAY TUNED!”

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Dick Flavin Donates Red Sox “Teammates” Pic to Hall of Fame Auction

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The late Pulitzer Prize-winner David Halberstam — in The New York Times bestseller “The Teammates” — talks with drama and passion of a group of close friends whom baseball brought together.  In early October 2001, Halberstam writes, Boston Red Sox legends Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky began a 1,300-mile trip by car to visit their beloved friend in Florida, Ted Williams, whom they knew was dying. Bobby Doerr, the fourth member of this close group–“my guys,” Williams used to call them–was unable to join them. Driving the car most of the way was another friend of the group, albeit not a Red Sox “teammate” – Dick Flavin.

The book is filled with historical details and first-hand accounts  about baseball and about something more: the richness of friendship.

DiMaggio and Pesky are gone now; Doerr is nearing 100 years old and lives in Los Angeles.  Dick Flavin owns a Red Sox World Series Championship ring as a public address announcer at Fenway and has been annointed as the official Red Sox Poet Laureate.  His own book of verse, “Red Sox Rhymes,” was itself a New York Times bestseller, and as a former Boston television personality and later as the narrator of “The Teammates,” an ESPN documentary that was nominated for three 2004 Emmy Awards, Dick was inducted in 2015 into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Now, he has contributed this autographed and framed photo of Pesky and DiMaggio to our 2017 Hall of Fame “Celebrity” auction. It’s a collector’s item without compare.

From Wikipedia — Pesky was a shortstop and third baseman during a ten-year major league playing career, appearing in 1,270 games. He was associated with the Red Sox for 61 of his 73 years in baseball—from 1940 through June 3, 1952, 1961 through 1964, and from 1969 until his death in 2012. Pesky also managed the Red Sox from 1963 to 1964, and in September 1980. A left-handed hitter who threw right-handed, Pesky was a tough man for pitchers to strike out. He was the first American League player to score 6 runs in a 9 inning game. As a hitter, he specialized in getting on base, leading the league in base hits three times—his first three seasons in the majors, in which he collected over 200 hits each year—and was among the top ten in on-base percentage six times while batting .307 in 4,745 at bats as a major leaguer. He was also an excellent bunter who led the league in sacrifice hits in 1942.

DiMaggio, nicknamed “The Little Professor,” played his entire 11-year baseball career for the Red Sox (1940–1953). He was the youngest of three brothers who each became major league center fielders, the others being Joe and Vince. An effective leadoff hitter, he batted .300 four times and led the American League in runs twice and in triples and stolen bases once each. He also led AL center fielders in assists three times and in putouts and double plays twice each; he tied a league record by recording 400 putouts four times, and his 1948 totals of 503 putouts and 526 total chances stood as AL records for nearly thirty years. His 1338 games in center field ranked eighth in AL history when he retired. His 34-game hitting streak in 1949 remains a Boston club record.