LAS VEGAS — The owner of Red Apple Media and on-air host at the radio station ownership group’s flagship WABC Radio in New York was saluted for innovation, entrepreneur and community service with his receipt of the Lowry Mays Excellence in Broadcasting Award at the Broadcasters Foundation of America annual breakfast that unofficially closes out the NAB Show.
Catsimatidis, who acquired WABC in March 2020, said radio remains his favorite business across a career that has spanned groceries, real estate, energy, and aviation. “The only cards I give out are WABC,” he said. He framed his commitment to the station around a mission to restore trust in media. “We start off, we say, truth, justice, and the American way.”
The honor came as the Los Angeles Times offered a feature story on Catsimatidis, who made his fortune as a City of New York supermarket chain owner.
The BFOA honor was one of eight within a program emceed by President Tim McCarthy and Chairman Scott Herman. McCarthy noted that over the past 10 years, the BFOA has distributed more than $15 million in aid to broadcasters and their families.
Leading off the Leadership Awards, NAB EVP of Industry Affairs and Innovation April Carty-Sipp traced her connection to broadcasting across three generations. From her mother dancing on American Bandstand at WFIL-TV in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, to begging her father to drive her to a live radio remote as a teenager, to eventually leading local programming at WPVI “6ABC,” the very station that aired Bandstand, she said, “Local broadcasting has been there for so many times in my life,” she said, “and I’m so proud to have spent my entire career making sure it’s there for our audiences.”
RAB President/CEO Mike Hulvey also opened by connecting generations of his family to radio: his grandfather hearing it for the first time when electricity reached their Illinois farm in the 1930s, and Hulvey himself falling in love with the medium at eight years old watching two broadcasters call a game from the top row of a high school gymnasium bleachers.
Weiss Agency President Heather Cohen credited her uncle, a New York news anchor, with giving her the broadcasting bug at age six. She worked her way from high school radio to college radio at Hofstra University to a board-op shift at WOR Radio the day after graduation. Cohen used her remarks to urge everyone in the room to spread the word about the Foundation. “I was brought to tears when a radio host shared that had he known earlier that the BFOA existed, maybe his co-worker would still be alive today,” she said. “I see it as every broadcaster’s responsibility to spread the word.”
ABC-Owned Television Stations President Chad Matthews reflected on mentorship as the foundation of his leadership philosophy, crediting anchor Beth Carroll, news director Colleen Maran, and executive producer Joanne Pallotta with shaping him as a young producer at “Fox 25” in Boston. “Leadership is never about a title,” he said, “but about serving something much larger than yourself.” He also included praise for his mentor, previous BFOA Leadership Award honoree, and Disney Entertainment Television Chair Debra OConnell, saying, “She sets a high bar for excellence and does it in a way that brings people along with her…Debra is the gold standard I strive for, and I’m deeply grateful for her leadership and support.”
Receiving her honor, iHeartMedia EVP of Global Music Marketing Alissa Pollack said, “Radio is probably the only medium that I feel still remains that trusted voice,” she said. “When communities celebrate, we are there. When people need real news, we are there. And when crisis hits, radio shows up.”
Hearst Television President Michael J. Hayes described the BFOA Annual Breakfast as “the most expensive free breakfast I’ve ever had” and the most important. He explained why: his cousin Luke Kamar, who followed him into broadcasting, died of glioblastoma at 39, leaving behind a wife and four children. “The Broadcasters Foundation has been there for Terry and the kids, quietly, consistently, and with dignity, most importantly,” Hayes said. “Without that support, their lives would look very different today.”
Lastly, former Inside Edition anchor and longtime BFOA board member Deborah Norville received the Chairman’s Award, presented by McCarthy, who called her “the First Lady of our Foundation.”
Norville attracted attention for her Tuesday afternoon interview with Nexstar Media Group founder and Chairman/CEO Perry Sook. The next morning, she closed the BFOA breakfast with a challenge to the room, urging attendees to help the Foundation reach broadcasters who don’t yet know it exists. “Keep on moving,” she said, borrowing from a song she wrote for an Inside Edition segment. “Keep on pushing. Nobody’s going to stop us now.”
