Gray Television Stations Win Large Market and Small Market Service to America Awards
16 April 2024 - 1:00PM
The National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation
(“NABLF”) selected two television stations owned by
Gray
Television, Inc. (NYSE: GTN) for this year’s coveted
Service to America Awards. The NABLF’s Service to America Awards
recognize outstanding community service by local broadcasters each
year for their exemplary service to their communities. The NABLF
recognizes the winners in each category at an in-person gala in
Washington, DC, on June 4, 2024.
WANF (CBS) in Atlanta,
Georgia, won the Large Market category
for its investigative series “In Plane Sight: an
investigation into racial profiling at airports by
TSA and DEA.” Atlanta News First Investigates exposed
plainclothes drug agents seizing money from innocent passengers at
Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, the busiest airport in the world. By
employing special investigative techniques to uncover the drug
agents and their methods -- and using a 360-degree camera, WANF
Chief Investigator Brendan Keefe was able to hold local police and
the federal government accountable for taking millions in cash from
people who were never arrested or charged with crimes, most of whom
were people of color. Congress is now poised to pass The FAIR Act,
a proposed new law that would no longer force airline passengers to
prove themselves innocent just to keep their own money.
WJHG (NBC) in Panama City,
Florida, won the Small Market category
for its community service program “Chapter
Chat,” a campaign to close the reading gap among children
that was further widened after Hurricane Michael and the pandemic.
This effort began after the WJHG news team reported less than half
of third graders in Bay County, Florida could read on grade level,
and over 900 children were considered homeless. While the news team
asked tough questions to school officials, they also
sought solutions. They created the Chapter Chat book club to
promote reading and encourage using the public library, they held a
book drive that collected over 1000 books for F.L.O.W., a free
library on wheels that distributes books to children, and they read
to children at local schools. Library officials credit the Chapter
Chat campaign with helping improve visitation by almost 20
percent, and they report a 14 percent increase in library card
holders since the campaign started. The station’s campaign also
helped them secure a grant to get more books in circulation.
WJHG-TV previously won the Service to Community Award for
Small Market Television in 2020 for its enterprise series
“Remembering the Forgotten” about the lack of federal aid
following Hurricane Michael in 2018.
“We are very proud of the great journalism across our company
and industry that leads to actual results that improve local
communities,” said Gray Executive Chairman and CEO Hilton H. Howell
Jr. “We salute all of our honorees and especially Gray television
stations WANF and WJHG for their continued commitment to quality
journalism.”
About Gray:
Gray Television, Inc. is a multimedia company headquartered in
Atlanta, Georgia. Gray is the nation’s largest owner of top-rated
local television stations and digital assets. Its television
stations serve 114 television markets that collectively reach
approximately 36 percent of US television households. This
portfolio includes 79 markets with the top-rated television station
and 102 markets with the first and/or second highest rated
television station. Gray also owns video program companies Raycom
Sports, Tupelo Media Group, and PowerNation Studios, as well as the
studio production facilities Assembly Atlanta and Third Rail
Studios. Gray owns a majority interest in Swirl Films.
For more information, please visit www.gray.tv.
Gray Contact:
Kevin P. Latek, Executive Vice President, Chief
Legal and Development Officer, 404-266-8333
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