The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation has unveiled the four recipients of its inaugural LABF Preservation Grants. Each of the selected applicants will receive a grant of $2,500 to be used to preserve specific elements of broadcast history.
Selected as 2026 LABF Preservation Grant Recipients are the following organizations:
- California Historical Radio Society, which is dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and sharing the history of radio, broadcasting, and electronic communication in the Bay Area and beyond. The LABF grant will be used to preserve and expand access to the Bay Area Radio Museum and Hall of Fame’s historically significant audio archives, which document decades of broadcasting that shaped Bay Area and California cultural life.
- Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy (SPERDVAC), which, since 1974, has been dedicated to collecting, restoring and sharing the recordings of classic radio programs from the 1930’s through the early 1960’s. The LABF grant will be used to equip a new Restoration Volunteer to join the restoration team and increase SPERDVACs capacity to restore and share the Society’s content.
- TCMediaNow, a nonprofit organization whose mission is the preservation, digitization, and long-term stewardship of historically significant broadcast television and film materials. LABF’s grant will be used to support the group’s efforts to stabilize, digitize and provide long-term public access to the professional video and film archive of Stan Turner, a legendary Twin Cities broadcaster and Minnesota Broadcast Hall of Fame member.
- WHRO Public Media whose mission is to make its audience smarter and happier through the power of nonprofit media. The company will use the LABF Preservation Grant to preserve a collection of materials from its earliest days of delivering educational content to schools in the Norfolk market. The collection includes 20 hours of media that are at risk of degradation due to their obsolete media formats; major activities will include the digitization of these materials, metadata creation, and ingesting them into WHRO’s Digital Asset Management System for future access.
LABF Co-Chair Deborah Parenti, who also serves as President/Publisher of Radio + Television Business Report and Radio Ink, said, “Grant recipients were chosen for their high scores in areas including historical significance, preservation methodology and feasibility, accessibility and public availability, and impact and contribution to the field.
LABF Co-Chair Dave “Chachi” Denes, who leads Benztown, added, “We want to thank our five-person selection panel comprised of members of the LABF Board of Directors. Without their contribution of time as well as their specific expertise in areas including broadcasting, preservation, academic and media history, LABF would not have been able to review the applications and select the four outstanding grant recipients.
In addition to the monetary award, grant recipients will be both honored as LABF Preservation Ambassadors on the Foundation’s website (TVRadioLibrary.org) and be recognized on-site during LABF’s Giants of Broadcasting and Electronic Arts Gala Luncheon at Gotham Hall in the City of New York on November 17.
