The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation is releasing new radio and TV spots promoting the WBA Hall of Fame at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center.
The spots feature WBA and WBA Foundation President and CEO Michelle Vetterkind. They feature recent changes made to enhance and grow the Hall of Fame space.
“The Wisconsin Broadcasters Hall of Fame is a wonderful landmark to showcase Wisconsin’s rich broadcasting heritage,” Vetterkind said. “Thank you to the Hilton Milwaukee City Center for providing such a great venue and being such a wonderful partner.”
The WBA Foundation also thanks WITI-TV in Milwaukee for producing the spots.
The Wisconsin Broadcasters Hall of Fame was created in 1989 to honor those broadcasters who have devoted their careers to broadcasting and its development in Wisconsin, to recognize their outstanding service to broadcasting, their communities, and their state. There are currently 160 broadcasters in the Hall of Fame. The first twelve members of the Hall of Fame were inducted during the 1989 WBA Summer Conference. Inductees are chosen each year from among nominations by WBA members. Broadcasters who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame include managers, personalities, engineers, reporters and those broadcasting pioneers who were at once all of the above.
In October, 1989, Alfred C. Sykes, then Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, came to Wisconsin to formally dedicate a Hall of Fame display, including plaques honoring the inductees, at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Library in Madison. In 2010, due to remodeling of the SHSW facility, the display was removed. The Hall of Fame exhibit was relocated to the Hilton Milwaukee City Center in 2015 and enhanced with a touchscreen display featuring all inductee commemorative videos.
All the videos and many other artifacts from Wisconsin broadcasting are available online in the Wisconsin Broadcasting Museum.
The next set of Hall of Fame inductees will be recognized June 20 at the 2024 WBA Summer Conference at Hotel Retlaw in downtown Fond du Lac.
