TRIBUTE TO LEGENDARY BROADCASTER SET FOR APRIL
(DES MOINES, IA)– The life and work of one of Iowa’s most influential broadcasters will be the subject of a special event this spring.
“A Tribute to Jack Shelley” will be held on Friday, April 29, 2011 at the State Historical Building, 600 East Locust Street in Des Moines, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public, the event will feature historic broadcasts of Shelley on WHO radio and television, as well as excerpts from interviews he gave about his career. Various individuals will also speak about his impact on Iowa broadcasting.
A fixture on WHO for three decades, Jack Shelley (1912-2010) contributed to the founding of the Iowa Broadcast News Association, an organization that in 1972 honored him by establishing the Jack Shelley Award for lifetime achievement in broadcast journalism. He was co-founder and former president of the international Radio-Television News Directors Association (now the Radio Television Digital News Association), and former president of the Associated Press Radio and Television Association. He was president of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council in 1981 and a member of an advisory committee appointed by the Iowa Supreme Court on the use of cameras and tape recorders in trials. In 1980, he received the Broadcaster of the Year award from the Iowa Broadcasters Association.
Shelley began on WHO Radio in 1935, and founded the WHO-TV news department when the station went on the air in 1954. He taught broadcast journalism at Iowa State University for 17 years before retiring in 1982.
Sponsors of the event are the State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa Broadcast News Association, Archives of Iowa Broadcasting, and WHO Radio in Des Moines.
"Jack Shelley was respected nationally for his clear and concise reporting, his dedication to the craft of journalism, and a deep caring for his audience," said Jeff Stein, Archives of Iowa Broadcasting administrator and member of the board of directors of the State Historical Society of Iowa. "He truly shaped what broadcast news would become in Iowa and the nation."
Premiering at the event will be “Jack Shelley: History’s Recorder In His Own Words,” a DVD including multiple broadcasts and interviews from Shelley’s career. Proceeds from sale of the DVD benefit the Archives of Iowa Broadcasting.
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