Posted by Bud on August 04, 2010 at 21:32:32:
In Reply to: Kasell, Hemmert join 2010 Radio Hall of Fame posted by Bud on August 04, 2010 at 21:30:42:
No Stern or Dahl for Radio Hall of Fame; WXRT's Hemmert gets nod
By Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune
When this year's National Radio Hall of Fame nominations were announced in the spring, the Chicago Sun-Times' Roger Ebert was among those stunned, and rightly so.
"Howard Stern's not already in the Radio Hall of Fame?" Ebert wrote on Twitter. "You gotta be kidding."
Yet the Chicago-based Hall on Wednesday somehow has managed to snub Stern yet again. No joke.
And the Stern rebuke -- even in the face of his own publicly stated disregard for the Hall -- is such a glaring omission that it looks to overshadow and undercut those who did make the cut for the class of 2010, no matter how deserving. These honorees include Terri Hemmert of CBS Radio's WXRT-FM 93.1 in Chicago and Carl Kassel, a longtime National Public Radio newsman who's now announcer for Chicago Public Media's "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!"
Besides Stern, others discounted in online balloting for induction on Nov. 6 included groundbreaking Chicago radio star (and current Chicago Tribune columnist) Steve Dahl, WLS-AM's pioneering "National Barn Dance" and former long-time Notre Dame play-by-play voice Tony Roberts.
Kasell won out over Sirius XM's Stern in the national-active category. Other nominees Kasell beat, included Bob Brinker of Citadel Media Network's Money Talk and Jones Radio Network's country music countdown host Bob Kingsley.
Hemmert's victory in the local or regional-active divsion was over Leslie Fram of New York's WRXP-FM, Ronn Owens of KGO-AM in San Francisco and Luther Masingill of WDEF-FM in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The 81-year-old "Music and the Spoken Word," featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, was voted into the Hall in its national-pioneer category over Mutual and Westwood One's Roberts, ABC talker Barry Farber and "National Barn Dance," a precursor to Nashville's "Grand Ole Opry" that began in 1924 on WLS-AM and ended in 1968 on Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s WGN-AM.
Country music TV and radio personality Ralph Emery got the nod as local or regional-pioneer over Dahl, Boston's Charles Laquidara and Gary Burbank, a veteran of Cincinnati's WLW-AM who more recently has contributed segments featuring his Earl Pitts character for Tribune Co.'s WGN America cable channel.
Bypassing the Internet, the Hall of Fame's steering committee, citing their major contributions to the radio industry, also selected Radio One founder Cathy Hughes and the late Sam Phillips. the radio executive and record producer best remembered for helping launch Elvis Presley's career.