Journalism college to honor alumni, leaders during J Days

Eleven individuals will be honored during J Day activities April 16 and 17 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications. The college will present 10 awards and will join the Nebraska Broadcasters Association to present the Nebraska Broadcast Pioneer Award.

In an April 16 ceremony to induct students into the journalism honor society, Kappa Tau Alpha, and recognize students' success in scholarship and achievement, the college will present four Dean's Awards to Richard W. Chapin, Roger Dodson, Roger T. Larson and G. Martin "Marty" Riemenschneider. The International Award will be presented to Salim Amin, CEO of Camerapix, founder and chairman of The Mohamed Amin Foundation, Nairobi, Kenya, and chairman of A24 Medial. A special award, the Thomas C. Sorensen Award for Distinguished Nebraska Journalism, will be presented to Deena Winter at the college's honors convocation that evening. Winter is a reporter at the Lincoln Journal Star.

In an April 17 ceremony at Chez Hay, the college will present three Alumni Awards of Excellence: the Outstanding Advertising Award to Edward M. O'Boyle of Grand Island; the Outstanding Broadcasting Award to Kevin Kugler of Omaha; and the Outstanding News-editorial Award to Jane Hirt of Chicago. It will also present the Service to the Profession Award to Rodney L. Bates of Lincoln and the Nebraska Broadcast Pioneer Award to Larry Rice of Ainsworth. The Kappa Tau Alpha Outstanding Service Award for the Will Owen Jones chapter will be presented to Amin.

Amin, of Nairobi, Kenya, is CEO of Camerapix, chairman and founder of the Mohamed Amin Foundation and chairman of A24 Media. A24 is Africa's first online delivery site for material from journalists, African broadcasters and nongovernmental organizations. Its mission is to tell the African story to the world. The Mohamed Amin Foundation provides hands-on training in media and filmmaking in East Africa. Begun in 1998 after the tragic death of Salim's father, Mohammed "Mo" Amin, its students and alumni have taken part in international exchanges with other media institutes around the world and have won international awards. They are often seen on international broadcasts in Europe and Africa. Camerapix supplies Western news outlets exclusive photographs or videotape of the news of the day from Africa.

Bates is general manager of NET, Nebraska Educational Telecommunications; the director of Television and general manager of KUON-TV at UNL; and secretary/treasurer of NET Foundations for Radio and Television. He was a former assistant director of development, then director, at NET Foundations, formerly Nebraskans for Public Television Inc. In addition, he was a senior producer at NET. Bates' experience in the private sector was as a managing general partner in Bates & Associates: Communication Specialists, a communications consulting company that designed, produced and distributed material used for training, marketing, sales, promotion, education, government and public relations. He served in several state agencies, first as director of the Telecommunications and Information Center, then director of the state's Department of Economic Development. Bates serves on many boards, including American Public Television, the Association of Public Television Stations, Native American Public Telecommunications and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Public Broadcasting Service.

Chapin began his career in broadcasting when he joined radio station KFOR as an account executive in March 1953. Later that year he was named general sales manager, and in 1954, he became general manager of KFOR Radio and Television. Chapin went to work for the Stuart Broadcasting Co. and was elected vice president of its parent company, Stuart Investment Co., in January 1958. Under Chapin's guidance, the Stuart Investment Co. bought radio stations in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Grand Island. Stuart branched out and purchased an outdoor advertising company and newspapers in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wyoming. Chapin has received numerous awards for his contributions in civic and community activities, including the city and state's Outstanding Young Man Award, the Distinguished Nebraskan in Broadcasting Award and the Lincoln Ad Club's Silver Medal Award. He was elected chairman of the board of directors of the National Association of Broadcasters in 1972. Chapin was awarded an honorary lifetime membership in the Nebraska Broadcasters Association and inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 1973.

Dodson is president of sales and training for Three Eagles Communications, a radio company with 60 radio stations in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota. Prior to joining Three Eagles, Dodson was senior vice president for the Radio Advertising Bureau, the association for the radio industry. He served as president of Radio One, a company of 10 radio stations in the Midwest that was eventually sold to Three Eagles Communications. Dodson is a member of the Nebraska Broadcasters Hall of Fame and was named the outstanding broadcasting alumnus of the UNL College of Journalism in 2003. In 1995, Dodson was named National Broadcaster of the Year by the radio industry. In 1987 he was one of 12 broadcasters and their radio stations to be profiled in a publication called "Radio In Search of Excellence," an article focusing on lessons from America's best-run radio stations when Dodson was president of Long-Pride Broadcasting. He teaches media sales at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Hirt is managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, a position she assumed in August 2008. Before that, she spent six years as the founding editor of RedEye, the six-day-a-week newspaper for young, social, commuting Chicagoans that has taken the city by storm. In her 19-year career with the Tribune, Hirt also has been the Tribune's foreign/national news editor and copy desk chief, and edited for the Perspective and Sports sections. She graduated from UNL with a bachelor's degree in journalism and was recognized by Crain's Chicago Business in 2006 as one of its "40 under 40." She's a member of Chicago's "100 Wise Women" and is on the board of the Chicago Headline Club.

Kugler, a 1994 graduate of the UNL College of Journalism, is the lead play-by-play voice on Westwood One's coverage of NCAA football and basketball, as well as the championship series of the College World Series. A five-time winner of the Nebraska Sportscaster of the Year (2003-06, 2008), Kugler joined the NCAA Radio Network in 2004 as a field reporter for the CWS before being moved upstairs to the broadcast booth. For the past three seasons he teamed with Terry Bowden on Westwood One's College Football Game of the Week, and handled play-by-play for the NCAA Basketball Game of the Week. Kugler called the Men's Final Four this past March with John Thompson and Bill Raftery. Kugler also spent last August in China covering the Olympics, where he called the USA men's basketball games, produced several Olympic updates, and reported on other various Olympic events. Kugler, a Lincoln native, can be heard daily as the co-host of "Unsportsmanlike Conduct," which airs weekday afternoons (2-6 p.m.) on 1620 The Zone and 1620thezone.com. He also does television play-by-play for NET Sports and co-hosts NET's "Big Red Wrap-Up."

Larson, whose 40-year career began at Lincoln station KFOR (1240 AM), retired in 1953. He became director of community relations, a half-time position, at National Bank of Commerce in 1993 and remained a consultant to KFOR. At KFOR (AM) and KFRX (FM), Larson served as vice president and general manager. His familiar voice returned to the Lincoln airwaves in 2000 every Tuesday and Thursday when he voiced his opinions on local, state and national issues in his "Perspectives" commentaries. Larson joined News Talk 1400 KLIN (AM) in January 2006. Larson's editorials run three times a day, including the morning and afternoon drives, every Tuesday and Thursday. Larson served as president of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association in 1966 and again in 1972. He was elected to the NBA Hall of Fame in 1966. His community involvement has led to many awards and honors. He was the first recipient of the Roger T. Larson Community Builder Award, created in his honor, in 2002, and was named the Chamber of Commerce's Burnham Yates Outstanding Citizen in Lincoln Award in 2001.

O'Boyle is an executive vice president at Five Points Bank of Grand Island, Kearney and Hastings, where he develops and implements the bank's strategic and marketing plans. O'Boyle has earned recognition from the American Banker's Association for Five Points Bank's products, branding and marketing strategies. With his marketing and advertising guidance Hometown Banc Corp. is now the largest bank in central Nebraska and the 10th largest bank in the state, and is rated one of the safest banks in the state. As a commercial loan officer O'Boyle has developed and serviced a $43 million commercial loan portfolio. O'Boyle worked with Beavercreek Marketing, a consulting company that he helped to establish in 1995. The company has provided marketing assistance to more than 800 banks across the United States. Beavercreek's first nationally marketed program was the Better Checking System for bank's implementing check imaging and BankAll, a product and brand that increased customers' usage of a bank's Internet portal. O'Boyle's degree in advertising helped him get his first job at the Grand Island Independent in advertising sales. He won the 1981 and 2003 "Golden Coin" award from the American Banking Association for advertising campaigns he developed for Five Points Bank. O'Boyle is married and has four children.

Rice is owner and general manager of KBRB AM & FM in Ainsworth. The son of C.C. and Sylvia Rice, he grew up on a farm owned by his uncle and managed by his father near Pickering, Mo. Rice attended Northwest Missouri State in Maryville intending to become a high school coach. His broadcast career started with a part-time announcing job at KNIM in Maryville in 1956. It became full time and he received an offer from KFEQ-TV in St. Joseph, Mo., to become the station's weatherman in 1959. At the same time, he was a disc jockey at KFEQ radio and that led to another offer, this time with KBKC in Kansas City, Mo., and KBRX in O'Neill. He became manager of KBRB in 1968. Rice and his former boss at KNIM reunited to become partners in the ownership and operation of KBRX for the next 10 years. Ainsworth named Rice as its businessman of the year and he received the governor's business achievement award. He is a past president of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association.

Riemenschneider has done every job imaginable in his 37-plus years in broadcasting. He got his start as an account executive, has worked as a station manager, vice president, general manager and owner. Riemenschneider has been the president and executive director of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association since 2002. He is the sixth person to serve the NBA since the association was founded in 1934. The association represents Nebraska's radio and television stations. Its primary mission is to serve its members while improving the broadcasting industry and the state of Nebraska. Riemenschneider was a board member of the NBA from 1995-2000 and chairman from 1998-99. He has held various board positions with the Metro Omaha Radio Broadcasters Association and is a member of the Omaha Advertising Federation.

Winter has covered city government for the Lincoln Journal Star for four years. Winter produced "The Core," a multipart, multimedia package examining the problems besieging Lincoln's oldest neighborhoods in January 2008. Prior to 2005, she worked for 11 years at the Bismarck Tribune as a city editor, state editor, state government reporter, cops and courts reporter and bureau reporter. She took breaks from the Tribune to stay at home with her two children, Jasmine and Jacob and to work part-time as a Colorado Springs, Colo., bureau reporter for the Denver Post. Winter grew up in Bowman, N.D., a town of 1,800, and graduated from the University of Mary in Bismarck. The Sorensen Award is named in honor of a Nebraska journalist, Thomas C. Sorensen, who started his career in journalism as an assistant night editor at the Lincoln State Journal. Later he served as news director and commentator on KLMS radio in Lincoln. Sorensen graduated from the University of Nebraska with degrees in journalism and political science.