‘MEET THE PRESS’ TO JOIN NAB HALL OF FAME

NBC’s Meet the Press will be the television inductee into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame at the NAB2007 Television Luncheon on Monday, April 16, in Las Vegas. The show’s moderator and managing editor, Tim Russert, will be on-hand to accept the award.

“For over half a century, Meet the Press has served as the benchmark for public-affairs programming,” said NAB President and CEO David K. Rehr. “NAB is proud to recognize this institution of excellence in journalism and we are honored to present the award to the program’s longest serving moderator, Tim Russert.”

Meet the Press will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2007, making it, NAB says, “the longest-running program ever on network TV. Since it premiered on Nov. 6, 1947, the program has continually featured headline-making interviews with world leaders and U.S. newsmakers every Sunday morning on NBC.” Prior to its acclaimed television run, the show aired on radio with Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak as producers.

Every sitting president from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush has appeared on the program. So too has every vice president, starting with Alben Barkley in 1952, every Secretary of State from John Foster Dulles to Condoleezza Rice, and every Secretary of Defense from Robert McNamara to Donald Rumsfeld. First Ladies Eleanor Roosevelt, Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Laura Bush have all been interviewed on Meet the Press.

Tim Russert, the program’s moderator and managing editor, is the ninth person to serve as permanent host. Russert, who also serves as senior vice president and Washington bureau chief of NBC News, has been moderator of Meet the Press since 1991, making him the longest serving moderator in the history of the show. Prior to Russert, the show’s moderators included: Martha Rountree, Ned Brooks, Lawrence Spivak, Bill Monroe, Marvin Kalb, Roger Mudd, Chris Wallace and Garrick Utley.

Previous NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame television inductees include Regis Philbin, The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, Ted Koppel, M*A*S*H, 60 Minutes, The Today Show and Star Trek, among others.