The West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame inducted 13 newmembers in a ceremony at the Museum of Radio & Technology inHuntington on Saturday, Oct. 2.
Tom Resler and Garry Ritchie, museum members, brought together acommittee in 2006 that has worked together each year to selectinductees from the numerous nominations that are submitted forconsideration.
The museum, founded in 1991, features hundreds of radio and TVexhibits and maintains a library of broadcasting history. The museumis open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 to 4p.m.
This year's inductees include:
Frank Annand
He was a performer in the Charleston/Huntington market on WTIP,WTIO, WCHS, WCHS-TV and WSAZ-TV from the 1950s through the 1980s. Hecovered news in the field, anchored the news, reported weather,hosted talk shows, voiced commercials, produced programs and evenannounced Big Time Wrestling. He was trained as an actor and wasvery active in Kanawha Players.
Robert 'Bob' Bolyard
He was called 'Bobby B' as a teen idol disc jockey on WVVW Radioin Grafton, just after graduating from high school in 1956. Threeyears later he was anchoring news and sports on WJPB-TV, Weston/Clarksburg, and doing news reports. His career grew into managementas national sales manager of WHSV-TV, Harrisonburg, Va., and vicepresident of WCTI-TV in New Bern, N.C.
Don Cook
Cook worked for WCHS radio and was the voice of the MarshallThundering Herd. He was also an original co-host of Metro-News'Talkline.' He loved minor league baseball and did play-by-play forCharleston minor league teams. He was the public address announcerfor the West Virginia Power baseball team.
John Dickensheets
Dickensheets was in broadcasting for more than 40 years, doingeverything from staff announcing to running both WCHS and WQBE-AM asgeneral manager. He brought 'Sports Talk' to West Virginia radio anddid play-by-play of Charleston's professional baseball teams,University of Charleston, West Virginia State and many high schools.
C. Leslie 'Les' Golliday
Golliday built WEPM in Martinsburg in 1946. He personally plowedcopper into the ground under the tower to boost the signal. Later hebuilt WEPM-FM. He became a civic leader in Martinsburg and served aterm as mayor. He also built WCLG in Morgantown in 1954 and was anearly experimenter in FM stereo.
Fred Griffith
Griffith worked in his father's Charleston restaurant until WTIPhired him in the 1950s. He was a news director, commercial writer,performer and classical music show host. He moved to Cleveland'sWDOK radio, and then to that market's WVIZ-TV, and to WEWS (TV) asnews director and host of the local TV show 'The Morning Exchange,'then WKYC-TV's 'Good Company.' He has reported from around the worldincluding both the North and South Poles and is a writer ofcookbooks along with wife Linda.
Larry Groce
This singer/songwriter, a Texas native, moved to West Virginiaand, since 1986, has hosted the 'Mountain Stage' weekly radioprogram on National Public Radio. West Virginia Public Radio recordsthe show. His best-known song, 'Junk Food Junkie,' made the Top 10in 1976.
Darrell Hudnall (a/k/a Darrell Daniels)
He was news director for Bristol Broadcasting and its fiveCharleston area stations, including WQBE-AM/FM and News Talk 950. Heserved as Charleston bureau chief for WSAZ-TV; news director of WROVin Roanoke, Va. and news anchor and reporter for WAKR and WSAV inAkron, Ohio. In his early years, he was news director for WCHSradio, Charleston.
Edwin 'Ned' Martin Jr.
Martin was the voice of the Boston Red Sox for 32 years, but hespent the early years of his career in Charleston on WCHS-TV anddoing play-by-play for the Charleston Senators AAA baseball team onradio. With the Red Sox, he broadcast the 1975 World Series on NBCRadio and TV. He also called four American League ChampionshipSeries on CBS Radio from 1976 to 1979.
Frank 'Karroll' Mazza
Mazza was heard across America in the 1980s on 50,000-watt clearchannel station WWVA in Wheeling. As host of 'Jamboree in theHills,' he appeared on stage before tens of thousands of countrymusic fans. He also performed on other radio stations in four statesand was WDTV-TV news anchor in Weston/Clarksburg.
Roger O'Neil
O'Neil moved to West Virginia in the late 1960s as a newsreporter for WSAZ-TV in Huntington. He covered the MarshallUniversity football team plane crash and other major stories. Healso was at WAVE-TV, Louisville; KPRC-TV, Houston and WMAQ-TV,Chicago. He moved to the NBC network as news correspondent in 1979and was named NBC News Denver bureau chief in 1983. He has cut backhis reporting but still does occasional pieces for the network.
Stan Sweet
This White Sulphur Springs native hosted a show on WSAZ-TV in theearly 1950s. He went to Hollywood and appeared in a movie, acted onnetwork TV and did Kellogg's and Old Gold ads. He became the worldchampion quick-draw pistol shooter and had a touring show. He closedhis career at WSLS-TV, Roanoke, Va., and WVVA-TV, Bluefield, asweatherman, retiring in 2007.
Mike Tussey (aka Mike Todd)
As Mike Todd, he was the program director who converted WTCR(Ashland/Huntington) to the innovative 'Nashville Sound' in the late1960s and was the top rated DJ in morning drive time. Later he was aplay-by-play sports announcer, doing the Huntington Cubs minorleague baseball games on WTCR and calling high school football andbasketball on WRVC in Huntington. Since 2006 he has beenbroadcasting the basketball games of Northern Kentucky University.
