NAB Show Tuesday: Crystal Awards Winners Announced, ESPN's Mike & Mike Honored

Tuesday

The NAB SHOW, mostly about video and content generation for online and other applications these days, celebrated radio at its annual Radio Luncheon TUESDAY afternoon, honoring ESPN RADIO's MIKE AND MIKE -- MIKE GREENBERG and MIKE GOLIC -- with induction into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame and announcing the winners of the NAB CRYSTAL RADIO AWARDS.

CRYSTAL AWARDS winners included:

• CBS RADIO News WWJ-A/DETROIT
• TUNED-IN BROADCASTING Triple A WRLT (LIGHTNING 100)/NASHVILLE
• IDA-VEND CO. Country KRLC-A/CLARKSTON, WA-LEWISTOn, ID
• CARTER BROADCAST GROUP Urban KPRS (HOT 103 JAMZ)/KANSAS CITY
• CBS RADIO News-Talk WCCO-A/MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL
• BONNEVILLE News-Talk KTAR-F/PHOENIX
• COX MEDIA GROUP Rock WBAB/BABYLON, LONG ISLAND, NY
• BRYAN BROADCASTING Top 40 KNDE (CANDY 96.1)/COLLEGE STATION, TX
• BEASLEY AC WJBR/WILMINGTON, DE
• CBS RADIO News KNX-A/LOS ANGELES

A CRYSTAL HERITAGE AWARD was presented to HUBBARD AC WTMX (101.9 THE MIX)/CHICAGO, honoring the station for having won five previous CRYSTAL AWARDS.

Syndicated tech show host KIM KOMANDO gave a pep talk to radio, criticizing the criticism of broadcast radio while suggesting that broadcasters embrace change.  She pointed to criticism of other media in the past, from CHARLIE CHAPLIN calling film a "fad" in 1916, DARRYL ZANUCK suggesting TV would be short-lived in 1946, repeated claims that TV would kill off radio and movies, and assertions about other technological challenges, saying that the "predictions of doom turned out to be a fantastic opportunity for other people, including me."  The talk included recounting of her career history and an analysis of how her company was built from scratch to a successful operation.

Radio's Most Innovative Take The Podium

JACOBS MEDIA's FRED JACOBS honored some of his company's selectees for "Radio's Most Innovative" in a TUESDAY afternoon session, including EMMIS CEO JEFF SMULYAN, NPR COO LOREN MAYOR, and NATIONAL RADIO TALENT SYSTEM creator/President/CEO DAN VALLIE.

SMULYAN focused his presentation on the launch of Sports format pioneer WFAN-A/NEW YORK, the BROADCASTER TRAFFIC CONSORTIUM, leading Hip-Hop station KPWR (POWER 106)/LOS ANGELES, and the NEXTRADIO smartphone app, which he said was designed to "make radio cool again."

MAYOR asserted a "direct connection between love and innovation," saying NPR's business model requires a deep connection -- love -- between the network and listeners, and in turn requires innovation.  She criticized the "false choice" of being based in broadcasting versus being based in digital, saying that it is possible to be based in both; she highlighted NPR's activity in podcasting (particularly "INVISIBILIA," "HIDDEN BRAIN," and "EMBEDDED") and the NPR ONE app, as well as testing politics and food podcasts on the latter and using information gleaned from usage statistics from NPR ONE on its broadcast shows like "MORNING EDITION," changing the order of stories based on user preferences.

VALLIE represented the non-technical side of innovation, discussing his organization's training of a new generation of broadcasters.

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