By Hannah Osborne
The Georgia Association of Broadcasters is pleased to introduce Ed Hula to its Hall of Fame Class of 2026.
For more than 30 years, Ed Hula Jr. has traveled the world covering the Olympic Games.
Hula’s story began in Tarrytown, NY in the midst of the Korean War. While his father was serving overseas, his mother stayed home to take care of the children. When Ed Hula Sr. returned from his service, the family moved to Westchester County. 
In 1960, the Hulas became a part of the ‘Great Northern Migration South’ and found new roots in Florida.
“That’s where I really grew up,” says Hula. “High school, university, my first job.”
Hula’s first job was at a radio station in Cape Canaveral, FL playing easy listening music as a senior in high school. He then attended Florida State University and received a degree in Government and International Affairs.
“That’s really where I got my first radio gig that I considered good and solid radio work,” Hula says.
Hula found that a career in broadcasting was a way to master technology and share with the world his knowledge and ideas.
“I found a means of delivering what I had learned about politics and what I appreciated about how things work in the world. I was able to use this technology to tell other people about it. That was why I came back,” he says.
Reflecting on what it means to master technology now, Hula finds the amusement in how 20 years ago reading on an airplane meant reading a book, or a newspaper.
“It’s amazing the way the proliferation of the media and streaming, in particular right now, is taking over the traditional, legacy media. It’s allowed an explosion of ideas and content,” he says.
Hula’s advice for young people? “Ride the wave” and exercise media literacy and understanding the technologies that are out there.
“As well as broadcasting, because broadcasting still has a role to play,” Hula says, pointing out that nothing is more certain than radio waves, that don’t rely on computer cables.
After graduation, he joined the team at WFXU-FM in Tallahassee, FL as an announcer for classical and jazz music programming. He then made a move to television at WFXU-TV.
While at WFXU-TV, Hula was part of the award-winning team covering the 1978 trial and death penalty execution of Theodore “Ted” Bundy.
“I did a number of interesting things there for 4 or 5 years, then moved on to Tampa, FL to work at the CBS affiliate as a news producer doing the 6 and 11 o’clock newscasts,” Hula says. “That was my real baptism into the world of TV broadcasting.”
After leaving the CBS station in Tampa, Hula took a break from the world of broadcast. He did a stent as a Communications Director at the Florida Democratic Party, then the Florida Department of Transportation.
“I got to experience the other side of the camera so to speak, the corporate side,” Hula says.
Around 1984, Hula heard about a new upstart company that intrigued him called CNN. It had just come on the air, and Hula made the move to Atlanta and found a job at the station.
“It was a news factory,” he says. “CNN in 1980 was a wonderful place to work in the news business.”
Hula worked at CNN as a writer and producer until 1988, and it was during this time that he met and fell in love with his now wife, Sheila.
“I was a writer in the newsroom and Sheila spotted me across the room. One thing led to another, and we became an item,” Hula says. “We’re going on our 41st year and every day we say, ‘What are we going to do for fun?’”
When Ed and Sheila welcomed their son, Ed Hula III, Ed Jr. Decided that he would step away from CNN and take on the role of being a stay-at-home dad. Hula Jr. was allowed to spend time with his newborn son, while Sheila was able to work on her career at CNN producing a travel program.
After a year in his role as a stay-at-home dad, Hula was ready to hop
back in the saddle and joined Peach State Public Radio (now Georgia Public Radio). He started at the station by announcing classical music and doing cut-ins on Morning Edition.
Eventually he became a News Director and during this time, he received an Overseas Press Club Award for the coverage of Jimmy Carter’s role in the 1990 Nicaragua election.
The same year, Hula flew to Tokyo to cover Atlanta’s bid for the 1996 Olympic games.
“Atlanta was considered a longshot,” Hula says. “It was an electric moment when the IOC (International Olympic Committee) President announced Atlanta as the winner. Everyone around me was jumping around and shouting with glee.”
Hula remembers the scene as a “mad house.” And in a brief moment of pause, stopped and realized that this moment was something that could have a major influence on his career in the years to come.
“I took advantage of that moment. When lightning struck. I was able to parlay it into the career I have.”
In 1992, Hula joined WGST and covered his first Olympic games in Barcelona.
“Barcelona was an extraordinary place to have the Olympics. There was a great spirit in the air,” Hula says.
He remembers the “festival of people” at the Barcelona games and believes that is something the team preparing for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games walked away with.
He also, at this time, launched his own company and published The Hula Report, which was later rebranded to Around the Rings just before the Atlanta Olympics. Hula launched the company with someone who he considers to have been a mentor, Atlanta journalist Bill Shipp.
In 1994, Hula covered his first winter Olympic games in Lillehammer, Norway.
“It was really a fantastic experience to be in such a cold place and to see all of these people filling this charming Norwegian town night after night in celebration,” he says.
Then, in 1996, Hula was named the Olympics Editor for WGST, and his voice became recognizable to thousands of listeners across Atlanta.
Hula describes the role of being Olympics Editor on a hometown basis as a “one in a lifetime experience.”
At last, the Olympics arrived in Atlanta and brought great excitement to the city. Atlanta established the Olympic Centennial Park and a legacy to the history of the games.
“That’s what’s so exciting and interesting about the Olympics. There are moments of real joy, real excitement, real thrill, chills, all of that,” he says.
However, the Atlanta Olympic games were also met with tragedy on the night of the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing.
“It taught everyone security lessons that have been followed in subsequent games,” Hula says.
Through his work on the Atlanta Olympic games, Hula became connected to a radio station in Australia. When the games closed in Atlanta, he was given the opportunity to go work in Australia for 3 and a half years as Sydney, AU prepared to host the 2000 games.
“That really, fully propelled me into the Olympic mode,” he says.
Hula, and his publication, became recognized worldwide as an essential source of news about the Olympics. Around the Rings became the first press organization operating digitally to be accredited for the Olympics by the IOC.
In 1997, Sheila closed her chapter with CNN after 16 years to join Ed in building Around the Rings. 
Around the Rings was first distributed by mail as The Hula Report. Then, the team adapted to a daily routine of distributing the report by fax. Around 1998, a website began to form, and the report started to be distributed by email. By 2002, the report was fully migrated into a digital press.
The final member of the Hula family, Ed III, joined the family business in 2006 upon his graduation from high school. Ed III joined Around the Rings and travelled the world as a member of their reporting team. For more than 12 years, Ed III helped his father in Olympic coverage and management of Around the Rings.
In 2021, the Hulas sold the publication to Infobae, a company based in Argentina, and it is no longer in existence.
Since then, Ed and Sheila have found new ways to stay involved. After retiring near Orlando, the two launched Hula Sports Communications in 2022, a boutique agency founded to provide content and consulting on the Olympics and world sport.
In 2025, Ed and a colleague began to produce a podcast titled “The Rings Update,” continuing Ed’s coverage of the games. While Hula stays involved on a part time basis in coverage and pre-coverage of the Olympic games, he no longer travels to them.
“I miss the diversity of people from all over the place being in one place. I miss hearing people speak in languages that I don’t,” Hula says.
Other aspects of the games that he remembers fondly are reconnecting with colleagues from past games; and bearing witness to the athletes’ joys, or disappointments.
“There are extraordinary things that happen there.”
Hula says that the part he played in covering the games was a responsibility to be fair and accurate, and keep the listeners engaged.
In his more than 30 years as a reporter for the Olympics, Hula has traveled to nearly 100 countries and become a leading expert on the Olympic Games and elite world sports.
In 2023, Ed Hula Jr. was recognized with the prestigious Pierre de Coubertin Medal from the IOC. Established in 1997, fewer than 50 people had received honor at the time of Hula’s recognition.
In 2026, Ed Hula Jr. will be inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
“It’s humbling,” Hula says of the induction. “I had no idea that anything like this was heading my way.
To be awarded is really an honor and I’m glad to have made a contribution. To be one of the people who makes noise, makes sound, makes radio, makes tv. It really is a thrilling moment.”
Hula looks forward to the induction ceremony and reuniting with past colleagues, as well as meeting his fellow inductees.
Ed Hula will be inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame alongside three peers on Friday, March 27th, 2026, at the Emory Conference Center and Hotel in Atlanta.
The evening will also honor six future broadcasters as recipients of the GAB E. Lanier Finch Scholarship.
