Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall Of Fame Inducts Six From Radio & TV

Nearly 300 broadcasters, friends, and fans crowded a Quincy, Mass., hotel ballroom on Thursday, June 8, for the 15th Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony and Luncheon honoring six distinguished radio and television broadcasters.

The honorees were:

• Retired long-time former sports anchor Mike Lynch from Boston’s WCVB-TV.
• The late and beloved videographer Therman Toon from WHDH-TV Boston.
• The late WBZ-TV Boston reporter and gifted storyteller Bill Shields.
• From WBZ-AM Boston, the heralded news reporter and “poet laureate” Carl Stevens.
• Spanish-language radio station entrepreneur Patrick Costa.
• Lesley University communications professor and former rock ’n’ roll DJ Donna L. Halper.

They were inducted into the Hall of Fame after their election earlier in the year by a committee of the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association, joining a group of more than 150 past honorees in the state’s prestigious Hall of Fame, with each of them receiving a standing ovation at the Thursday luncheon.

Halper, now a radio consultant as well as an educator, also received the Hall of Fame Pioneer Award, given, as HOF Committee Chair Peter Brown explained, “to individuals who have distinguished themselves over decades for lasting contributions made to the broadcast industry and through a leadership role in their particular craft.”

Honorary “Presenters” for the inductees were:

• José M. Villafañe, the managing partner for Costa Media, for inductee Pat Costa.
• Longtime latenight Boston radio personality Morgan White Jr. for inductee Donna Halper.
• Retired WCVB-TV news anchor Natalie Jacobson for inductee Mike Lynch. Jacobson was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2011,
• Katherine Rossmoore for her late husband, inductee Bill Shields,
• Jeff Brown, the long-time morning drive news anchor for WBZ-AM, for inductee Carl Stevens.
• Garry Armstrong, a journalist who worked at WHDH-TV for 31 years, for inductee Therman Toon. Armstrong was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2013.