Achievement Award From My Peers

"Be accurate, fair and non-partisan." (Photo by Cliff Brockman)

It was a gratifying honor for me to stand before nearly 100 Iowa broadcast journalists to accept one of Iowa's most prestigious awards, on April 29th, 2023. The Jack Shelly Award has been presented annually to outstanding Iowans for more than a half century by the Iowa Broadcast News Association.

Shelley was a beloved pioneer in Iowa broadcasting. He was the first news director for WHO TV in Des Moines, the legendary station where Ronald Reagan worked. Shelley filed radio reports from WWII and was on the battleship U.S.S. Missouri to witness the Japanese surrender. Later in his career, he taught journalism at Iowa State University. 

The photo at left shows Jack helping me carry award plaques after the 1997 IBNA awards convention, when I was news director for WOI Radio in Ames. He passed away in 2010. Numerous former colleagues have won the award before me, including my former bosses at KCCI TV, Russ Van Dyke and Paul Rhoades, who were valuable mentors early in my career.

I was genuinely moved as I observed fellow broadcasters react to a news feature that KCCI telecast when I retired in 2016. It reviewed my career from the early days as an AFVN newsman in the Vietnam War, my time with KGMB in Hawaii, 10 years with CBS News in Southeast Asia, and finally, my long run with WOI and Iowa Public Radio. After leaving broadcasting, I was a contributing writer for Vietnam magazine.

The awards ceremony was held at Prairie Meadows Events Center and the attendees were so nice and polite I can hardly describe my emotions.I love the photo below, where I was flanked by IBNA members as they encouraged me on.

In my brief comments, I touched on the disturbing aspects of the current media landscape: "It is a challenging time for our profession; newsroom layoffs, newspapers closing; public trust in the media embarrassingly low. The best way to overcome this is to be accurate, fair and non-partisan, the old-school journalism I learned."

It was a night I will forever cherish. I just wish Jack Shelly was there. Thanks a hundred times to the Iowa Broadcast News Association. Finally, I attach the video that was prepared by KCCI and shown to the audience as a set-up to announcing the 2023 Jack Shelly Award.

My retirement story on KCCI