Kolber to be honored with Gold Medal Award
On Sunday Upper Dublin graduate Suzy Kolber, host of ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown, will receive one of the highest honors in Pennsylvania broadcasting, the Gold Medal Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters (PAB). Kolber will be honored along with several other notable local broadcasting figures at the PAB’s annual May meeting at the Hotel Hershey.
“We are honored to recognize Suzy as one of the top talents in sports broadcasting,” said Joe Conti, President of the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters. “It is our pleasure to present her with the Gold Medal award, and to honor our 2018 Hall of Fame inductees and Broadcasters of the Year. This year’s Annual Meeting promises to be the biggest and best yet for the PAB.”
The Gold Medal is the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters highest award of distinction. The
recipient must be a native Pennsylvanian, been raised in Pennsylvania and recognized through accomplishments in the arts, communication, education, entertainment, business, public service, science, sports or philanthropy.
Kolber originally joined ESPN in 1993 as co-host of SportsNight. She later served as an anchor on SportsCenter, a reporter on College GameDay and cohost of the X Games in 1995 and 1996. A mainstay of the company’s NFL coverage, Kolber now hosts Monday Night Countdown, the MNF halftime and postgame, conducts
red carpet and green room interviews at the NFL Draft, and hosts Sunday NFL Countdown segments from the Super Bowl stadium on game day. The first female recipient of the Maxwell Football Club’s Sports Broadcaster of the Year Award in 2006, Kolber was also named to Sports Business Daily’s 2004 list of the 10 favorite sports TV personalities of the past 10 years.
The Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters will also recognize two outstanding local talents with the Broadcaster of the Year award, Sid Mark and Rob Vaughn.
Sid Mark is best known for his shows Sunday with Sinatra on WPHT and The Sounds of Sinatra, a nationally syndicated radio
program featuring the music of Frank Sinatra. Mark’s shows developed from his time at WHAT and WHATFM in 1957, where Mark worked as a disc jockey. Mark was also inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia’s Hall of Fame in 2001.
Rob Vaughn joined WFMZ-TV in 1987 after working as an editor and newscaster with the Associated Press Radio Network in Washington and on the news at WIP-AM. During his time at WFMZ-TV, Vaughn has narrated documentaries that aired on the History channel, A & E, and other networks. Vaughn has been nominated several times for Emmys in the News Anchor category in the Philadelphia/MidAtlantic
Emmy region and holds awards from other journalism organizations like the Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists.
The PAB 2018 Hall of Fame inductees include Brian Lilly of Lilly Broadcasting and Robert VanDerheyden of Bold Gold Media Group. The 2018 recipient of the Janet & Lew Klein “Making a Difference” Award will be NAB Education Foundation President, Marcellus Alexander.
The PAB Gold Medal Dinner is held immediately followed on May 7 with the PAB Awards Luncheon, where broadcasters from across the Commonwealth will be recognized for outstanding achievement in several categories.