Awards simplified: 2 Sherwood categories
It’s time for the 12th Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame awards, and this year’s comes with a twist or two.
Instead of having the public vote in five or six categories, on an overloaded ballot, with some categories bearing some 20 nominees, radio fans are being invited to cast ballots only for a new honor: The Don Sherwood Award. Named for the San Francisco legend of radio legends, it’s basically a popularity poll, with twin awards going to voters’ “favorite Bay Area radio personality from ‘back in the day,’ ” and a “favorite Bay Area radio personality on the air right now,” according to the Hall of Fame’s site.
Earlier this year, the public was invited to submit names of their favorites in each category, “Lifetime Achievement” and “Active,” and the broadcasters who drew the most votes make up the final ballot. Voting continues through May at http:// bayarearadio.org/site/don -sherwood- awards-2017.
Current members of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame are eligible for the “Active” Sherwood award, but not for a “Lifetime Achievement” (a nice way to say “inactive”) honor.
For current broadcasters, the finalists are Jeff Bell (KCBS anchor), Trish Bell (KABL online), Stan Bunger (KCBS anchor), Fernando & Greg (KMVQ/”Now” morning cohosts), Chris Jackson (morning DJ on KUFX/”KFOX”), Michael Krasny (host of “Forum” on KQED-FM), Jack Kulp (KISQ/“The Breeze” morning co-host), and Murph & Mac (KNBR morning cohosts). Also, Ronn Owens (mid-morning host on KGO), Sarah & Vinnie of the morning show on KLLC (“Alice”), Brian Sussman, morning host on KSFO, and Tom Tolbert, KNBR’s afternoon co-host (with John Lund). Bunger, Kulp and Owens are also in the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame.
Finalists in the “Lifetime Achievement” category are Scott Beach, Renaissance man and DJ on classical radio (KKHI) as well as on KSFO; “Tall” Tom Campbell, DJ and pitchman extraordinaire on KYA; Chris Edwards, highenergy DJ on KYA, later an oldies DJ and account exec; John Mack Flanagan, fabled afternoon drive DJ on KFRC; and Dan Sorkin, witty DJ on the pre-Top 40 KFRC and on KSFO.
As for the ballot that had been open to the public: That’s going through a renovation, with nominees trimmed and with one category — program hosts — separated into two divisions: DJs and talkers. Those, along with News, Sports, and Specialty, will be voted on by current BARHOF inductees, while pioneers, engineers and station managers will be chosen by a BARHOF committee and the Society of Broadcast Engineers. No more on-air and online lobbying and bloc voting.
Inductees and Sherwood award recipients will be announced in July, and the induction luncheon will follow in September.
Winners: “The Kitchen Sisters,” Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, are back from the James Beard Foundation media awards show in New York, where they won again — their second win in their last two tries. The locally produced documentary series won a JBF medal in the Radio Show/Audio Webcast category for “Hidden Kitchens: War & Peace & Food,” including a study of the vital role of coffee through the Civil War, and Vietnam and Afghanistan wars. Another segment addressed hummus, and how people in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine were fighting over who owns the dish. Its title: “Give Chickpeas a Chance.” Silva and Nelson’s program won out over another show heard on KQED, “California Foodways,” and “Good Food,” from KCRW in Santa Monica.
Nelson and Silva’s work airs on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and npr.org. The awards were handed out on April 25. Earlier that day, the “Sisters” learned that they had won a Webby Award for best documentary podcast, for “The Kitchen Sisters Present,” a melange of their “stories from the B-side of history.” The 21st annual Webbys take place Tuesday, May 16 — where else but online, at www.webbyawards.com. KQED-FM was a big winner at the Edward R. Murrow Awards, grabbing six, the most of any news outlet in the market. The station was honored for its coverage of the California drought, for investigative reporting about dangerous chemicals in drinking water, for writing about the role of drones in reducing fire deaths, for a news report, “Two Deaths in One Jail in One Month: How Are We Treating Mentally Ill Inmates?” and two other programs.
KCBS won two Murrow Awards, including the top honor, for “Overall Excellence,” and for a newscast focused on the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland, anchored by Jeff Bell and Patti Reising. ‘All things’ must pass: Robert Siegel, co-host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” since 1987, has announced his retirement, effective next January. Siegel, who joined NPR more than 40 years ago as a newscaster and, later, an editor and manager, said his decision was “not an easy one … but, looking ahead to my 70s (which start all too soon) I feel that it is time for me to begin a new phase of life. Over the next few months, I hope to figure out what that will be.”
And David Wiegand, The Chron’s assistant managing editor who oversees the Datebook section (and doubles as our TV critic) has left his gig as co-host of “The Do List” on KQED-FM after nine years. He saluted co-host Cyrus Musiker, producer Suzie Racho and KQED. “We should all value public radio and television,” he says, “except for pledge breaks.” May we?: The innovative college station, KFJC (89.7) out of Foothill College, is midway through its “Merry Month of Mayhem,” five weeks of specials — 56 shows in all, overflowing into early June. Subjects include jazz writer Nat Hentoff’s legacy (Friday, May 19), Cyril Jordan and the still Flamin’ Groovies (May 27) and “Trump Mayhem” (Sunday, May 21), mixed media mashups and send-ups on the Donald. Go to http://kfjc.org/mayhem for times and many other specials.