NY Broadcasters Add 5 To Hall Of Fame

The board of directors of the New York State Broadcasters Association will induct its Hall of Fame Class of 2018 at its New York Leadership and Hall of Fame Luncheon during the NAB Show NY.  The luncheon will take place at noon on Thursday, Oct. 18, at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC.

David Donovan, President of the New York State Broadcasters Association said: “The Class of 2018 represents the best in our profession. We are honored to induct these highly successful broadcasters into the New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame. They represent the best in radio and television.”

The inductees:

Michael Kay – There would be no summer in New York without Michael Kay broadcasting the Yankees. This legendary broadcaster’s career spans 27 years. Kay has received nine Emmy Awards and 36 Emmy nominations while working with the YES network. Kay won the 2015 New York Emmy Award as the best play-by-play announcer for his work on YES’ Yankees telecasts. He also won a 2017 Emmy for his CenterStage hosting duties. These are just a few of the awards he has received in his outstanding career.

His work in radio is equally impressive.  He currently hosts The Michael Kay Show, with Don La Greca and Peter Rosenberg, a sports talk show heard weekdays on ESPN Radio 98.7 FM in New York. Kay worked as Yankees analyst on WABC Radio from 1992 through the 2001 season. Kay was a winner of “Best Sports Reporter” honors at the 2000 New York Metro Achievement in Radio Awards. In 1998, Kay also began co-hosting Sports Talk with John Sterling and Michael Kay, a nightly sports radio call-in show which aired on WABC Radio during the winter months.

Kay has been involved in the Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.), a charitable organization whose mission is to provide assistance to members of the baseball community.  He is active in the Alzheimer’s Association. He also teamed up with former Yankees manager Joe Girardi and Girardi’s Catch 25 Foundation to organize annual charity dinners to raise money for Alzheimer’s research.

David “Dave” Davis —Davis’ commitment to broadcasting in New York is beyond measure. He served as president and general manager of WABC, the flagship of the ABC Owned Television Stations. He was responsible for WABC-TV and all of its ancillary businesses, including: digital TV channels LiveWell HD Network; and a local/regional weather channel powered by AccuWeather; 7online.com and the station’s website.  He also was responsible for Live With Kelly & Michael, the long-running hit syndicated daytime show produced by the station.

Prior to returning to the helm of WABC in 2010, he was executive vice president of ABC News, where he oversaw all ABC News broadcasts including Good Morning America, World News with Diane Sawyer, 20/20, Nightline, This Week, World News Now and America This Morning.

He is a long-time executive with the ABC Owned Television Stations Group, first served WABC-TV as President and General Manager from 2003-2007. He came to New York from Philadelphia where he was President-GM of WPVI-TV. He started his career in broadcast news in 1977 as an overnight news photographer for KTRK Houston, and was moved through numerous news positions in Houston and Dallas before becoming news director at WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham.

Doug Emblidge & Ginny Ryan — Two of Rochester’s most distinguished journalists, enter the hall of fame, the legendary news team at WHAM-TV Rochester of Doug Emblidge and Ginny Ryan. They brought news to thousands of Rochester homes for a combined 66 years; have served as the co-anchors of 13WHAM News at 5:00 for more than two decades.

In addition to co-anchoring with Emblidge, Ryan serves as the anchor of 13WHAM News at 10 on Fox Rochester, and co-anchors 13WHAM News at 11:00 with NYSBA Hall of Fame member Don Alhart. Emblidge is also one of the anchors of Good Day Rochester on 13WHAM ABC and FOX Rochester.

After graduating Syracuse University, Emblidge joined WOKR-TV in 1983 to anchor a program called NewsScope. From 1986 to 1989, he anchored weeknight sportscasts. In 1989, he returned to news to anchor the station’s new 5 PM newscast. In 2000, Emblidge took on additional duties as anchor of 13WHAM News This Morning, which became Good Day Rochester.

Ryan, a Rochester native, graduated from Buffalo State College. Two days after graduation, her career began as a reporter at WENY-TV in Elmira, N.Y. She was hired as a reporter by WHAM in 1987. She anchored the morning and noon newscasts before doing the 5, 10 and 11 o’clock news.

Dan Ingram — Simply stated, Dan Ingram was a New York radio legend. A native of Flushing, “Big Dan” began his radio career as a student at Hofstra’s radio station WHCH. He started his professional career at; WNRC (now WVOX) New Rochelle, New York; and WALK-FM, Patchogue. After stops in Connecticut, Texas and St. Louis, he returned to the Empire State on WABC radio in 1961. He stayed with Musicradio WABC until the top 40 format changed in 1982.

He moved on to do a syndicated radio countdown program for CBS and worked briefly at WKTU-FM.  In 1991 Ingram enjoyed a revival on the classic rock powerhouse WCBS-FM, where he stayed until 2003. He was a very successful voice-over artist on many radio and TV advertisements.

Dan Ingram was one of the most highly regarded DJs from his era. He became the standard by which others in the industry were measured. He influenced an entire generation of radio personalities. His unique ability to talk at the beginning of a song and end right when the lyrics started set him apart. His “talk ups” were quick, funny and often irreverent. His ability to spoof the titles of top rated songs was unsurpassed.

Ingram called his listeners “Kemosabea,” an appropriate moniker for the millions of his faithful fans. He was inducted into the National Radio hall of Fame in 2007.

Dan Ingram died June 24. He was 83.