ATLANTA—The Georgia Association of Broadcasters honored nine station employees at the early stage of their broadcast career as members of its first-ever class of “Rising Stars” during GABCON 2024, Sept. 7, at the Jekyll Island Convention Center. 

The award recognizes station employees who are early in their careers who demonstrate great promise in their desire and ambition to success in broadcasting.

Honored individuals include:

• Austin Eller—WSB-AM 
• Haley Mason—CMG Athens
• Jamie Worsley—WALB-TV
• Jenna Petracci—WJBF-TV
• Jonathon Hoppe—WTVM-TV
• Josh Tanner—WCON
• Lydia Blackstone—WJCL-TV
• Sarah Smith—WSAV-TV
• Will Rioux---WRDW-TV

The honorees have shown a willingness to go beyond their daily job responsibilities to ensure the station produces and airs excellent content that exceeds the expectation of its viewers or listeners. Only individuals with fewer than five years of professional work experience were considered, the association said.

The Rising Stars attended the annual GABCON convention and participated in a panel discussion on the future of broadcasting. During the panel, led by Dale Van Canfort, professor emeritus of Piedmont College, the panelists talked about their experiences breaking into broadcasting and what trends they see affecting the future of the industry, it said.

The Rising Star Award is expected to become a key part of GAB’s future efforts to retain young talent in Georgia, it said.

More information is available on the association’s website.

ATLANTA—The recipients for the Georgia Association of Broadcasters’ 2019 Angelo Ditty-Frank McLemore Engineering Award have been revealed: James Gay, Tom Giglio and Bob Helbush.

Gay is the vice president of engineering for iHeart Media. Giglio is the vice president of engineering for Lincoln Financial Media. Hellbush is currently an independent contract, but previously worked as a senior engineer for Cox Media Group.

According to GAB, all three of the 2019 recipients have spent more than 20 years as a broadcast engineer, with the majority of their careers spent in Georgia. Each has also shown “professionalism among colleagues and willingness to help other engineers in support of the industry,” as the announcement describes.

The Angelo Ditty-Frank McLemore Award will be presented to Gay, Giglio and Helbush during GAB’s annual GABCON conference on Sept. 28.

ATLANTA—The Georgia Association of Broadcasters is taking nominations for its Angelo Ditty–Frank McLemore Award for the most dedicated broadcast engineers in the state.

Criteria for the award includes a 20-plus-year engineering career with the majority spent in Georgia; professionalism among colleagues; and willingness to help other engineers.

GAB President, Bob Houghton explained the origin of the award. “In 2012 the state of Georgia revised the state Emergency Alert System plan. The GAB worked closely with the state on this project and received tremendous support from four engineers. Later that year the GAB decided to honor those four engineers at the annual GAB convention, GABCON. From then on, the GAB realized that engineers need to be honored every year. That’s when the Angelo Ditty Engineering Award was created and named after longtime GAB ABIP Inspector, Angelo Ditty.”

He added, “In 2016, our much respected and beloved ABIP Inspector, Frank McLemore was killed in an automobile accident. After that, the award became the Angelo Ditty – Frank McLemore award to honor him. The GAB is especially proud of this award because the unsung heroes of broadcasting are recognized by their own peers.”

The nomination deadline is July 8. More info here.

The awards will be presented at the Honors Lunch at GABCON 2019, Sept. 28, in Atlanta. The annual association convention takes place Sept. 27–29 at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead in Atlanta.