From the Vermont Business Magazine website:
A news reporter, a sportscaster, a station executive and a legendary crooner have been named to the Vermont Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Radio and TV news reporter Andy Potter, sportscaster George Commo and Vermont Public Television President and CEO John King will be inducted during the annual VAB Awards Banquet November 19 in Burlington. Radio and movie star Rudy Vallee will be inducted posthumously.
Vallee was born in 1901 in Island Pond. A teenage bandleader, he drew attention with the band he started at Yale University, “Rudy Vallee and the Connecticut Yankees.” In 1929, Vallee began hosting “The Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour” on NBC, later “The Royal Gelatin Hour.” The show was one of the two most popular programs in the country for the next ten years (the other being “Amos ’n’ Andy”). His program was the first to present acts such as Burns and Allen, Milton Berle, Kate Smith, the Mills Brothers and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. His radio, stage and film career was lengthy. He worked into the early 1980’s, when he occasionally served as the opening act for the Village People. Vallee passed away in 1986. His wife, Eleanor Vallee, said she was thrilled with the VAB honor. “I’m so pleased and appreciative of this honor for my late husband, my ‘vagabond lover,’” she said from her home in Los Angeles. “Vagabond Lover” was the name of Vallee’s first film, in 1929. Eleanor Vallee, a prolific actress and model in her own right, is planning on attending the VAB Hall of Fame ceremony.
The recently-retired Andy Potter is a legend among news reporters in Vermont. He started his radio career while attending Middlebury College in the mid-1960’s. After serving in Vietnam, he returned to Vermont, where he brought his reporting skills to a variety of radio stations, including WJOY, WDOT and WKDR among others. He carved a second career on TV, where he was a longtime senior reporter for WCAX in Burlington.
George Commo is a nine-time winner of the Vermont Sportscaster of the Year award and is also a member of the Vermont Press Association Hall of Fame. George has been a radio and TV sportscaster since the early 1970’s and was the longtime voice of UVM Hockey and Vermont minor league baseball. Since 1998, he has been covering Norwich University Hockey for WDEV. Among his fans and peers, George is considered one of the greatest hockey play-by-play sportscasters to ever climb behind a microphone.
John King joined VPT in 1987 and has served as President and CEO since 1998. He also serves on the PBS Board of Directors and has served as Chairman of the Vermont Television Broadcasters Co-location Association. He is credited with helping to form a strong bond between public and private broadcasting in Vermont.
WDEV Radio in Waterbury has been named the “Broadcaster of the Year” for 2011. The station did an extraordinary job of keeping the public informed during and after Tropical Storm Irene. Their around-the-clock coverage of the disaster is credited with saving lives and keeping people informed.
John Likakis, Executive Director of WBTN-AM in Bennington is also being recognized for outstanding coverage of Tropical Storm Irene. Likakis is one of two winners of the VAB’s Distinguished Service Award. Likakis and station volunteers at WBTN provided critical information to their community before, during and after the storm. For days, they were the only link between local emergency officials and stranded citizens.
The other Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Ginny McGehee of WJOY radio in Burlington. Ginny is the longest-serving female radio personality in Vermont history, having started at WJOY in 1983. Her radio family wouldn’t think of starting the day without her good humor and upbeat attitude. She’s served her community in other ways as a board member of Champlain Valley Crimestoppers and the Vermont and New Hampshire Valley chapter of the American Red Cross.
The Alan Noyes Community Service Award is going to WJJR-FM in Rutland for their amazing annual Gift-of-Life blood drive. WJJR personalities Terry Jaye and Nanci Gordon helped collect 1,400 pints of blood in one day last December, breaking a New England record set in Boston. The annual drive has been a focal point of community involvement in Rutland. The regional and national record has since been eclipsed by Manchester, New Hampshire. This year’s drive is scheduled for December 20.
Two other Community Service Awards will be presented to WOKO-FM and ABC22/FOX44-TV. WOKO radio in Burlington has been conducting their “Big Change Round-up for Kids” for seven years. Last year, the station raised an astounding $206,000 for the Vermont Children’s Hospital at Fletcher Allen. The annual campaign culminates in a four-day radiothon.
ABC22/FOX44 is being honored for organizing a telethon for June 8 that raised more than $45,000 for the local Red Cross. The stations took action when reporter Natalie Paterson came back from covering damage from Vermont’s spring floods and asked General Manager Vic Vetters what the stations could do to help their neighbors. The telethon helped replenish the local Red Cross coffers at a critical time.
