Special Letter of Thanks from Your GAB President
THANKS FOR ATTENDING GABCON 2017
It was a great time to be a Broadcaster in Georgia. As promised GABCON provided fun, entertainment, excellent food, education and recognition for our members and partners outstanding achievements. We hope those that attended had a great time. Please share your pictures and memories of the weekend via our various social media sites and of course on your station or personal sites.
To the family and friends of Frank McLemore, it was our sincere pleasure to share with you how broadcasters in Georgia and engineers from around the country respected and loved your family patriarch. Thank you to past GAB Chairman Joseph Brannan for his efforts to organize the tribute to Frank and delivery two heartfelt and meaningful eulogies to Frank over the weekend.
Thank you to Congressman Buddy Carter for welcoming us to his expansive and extremely important first district of Georgia. Congressman Carter in just his second term in Congress has earned the reputation as one of the hardest workers in Congress and his position on the powerful Energy and Commerce committee is important to all Georgians and broadcasters.
We were pleased to present the Georgian of the Year Award to GDOT Commissioner Russell McMurry and the many men and women of the Georgia Department of Transportation. Thank you to their fellow state agency the Governors Office of Highway Safety and to WSB Traffic Reporter Ashley Frasca for your kind and informative presentation of the award.
It is always a pleasure to recognize the people who keep us on the air and make our product look and sound great. For the past five years we have recognized the best of our broadcast engineers and our first ABIP Inspector Angelo Ditty. This year we added Frank McLemore’s name to the award and recognized three new recipients for this well deserved recognition: Stu Graham, Bill Williams, and Knox Carreker.
The GAB very much appreciates the Exhibitors and Sponsors of this year’s GABCON. We encourage you to remember who supports GAB when making future product or service investments.
We made a special effort to create meaningful and interesting educational sessions at this year’s GABCON. Our speakers and panelists did not disappoint. The survey from Nielsen will be available to all of our members shortly. We want to make the information easily accessible while protecting the proprietary nature of the information. All of the speakers will share information from their presentations and welcome your reaching out to them with your questions and comments. If you need contact information, the GAB office can provide.
I want to thank the GAB Board for all they do to contribute to the success of GAB throughout the year and especially during the preparation for GABCON. Thanks to the support of our members, the GAB is financially sound and this allowed the board to approve the opening Welcome reception and the closing Getaway breakfast to be free to all GABCON participants. There was no charge for registration, other than food cost, and every food presentation cost was subsidized in some way by your board’s decisions. Thank you to our Chairman Jeff Dudley who accepted his position two years early and with very little notice or time to prepare his busy schedule as General Manager of WMAZ TV. All of our board members give of their time and experience to serve on the board and we much appreciate their service.
Finally to the staff, contractors and interns of the GAB, a sincere THANK YOU! If you had a good time, enjoyed good food, learned something at a session, and were moved by our tributes, there was the involvement of a GAB team member that made it happen. To the staff of the GAB Allison Fulton, Monique Wright, and new Dad, Luke Story, thank you for the contributions you made to GABCON while continuing to provide the member services we offer on a daily basis. To our interns, thank you for stepping up and doing all the little, and some not so little, details that may go unnoticed but contribute greatly to the success of an event like GABCON. Thank you Madeline Fulton (Sophomore at Auburn), Amy Lynch (Sophomore at UGA), and Alia Little (Rising Junior at UCLA), it shows those great schools produce more than good football teams. Thank you to CPA Joe Thibadeau for handling the invoices and paying the bills. I think we all agree that the look and feel of GABCON was different and special, and for that we thank Melanie Collier our Special Events Coordinator. A special shout out to Melanie moving the Friday Welcome Reception from an outdoor to indoor event in a matter of hours and making it look like it belonged there all a long.
In the next few days we will be surveying our members. We need your input to determine if we do GABCON every year or continue to alternate years. Do we return to Jekyll Island or seek out new venues in Georgia? Do we try moving the days away from the weekend for cheaper hotel rates? What worked and what didn’t work for you? If you didn’t attend this year but would like to in the future please share what it will take to get you to our next GABCON. You don’t have to wait for the survey. Your thoughts and opinions; complements and complaints are always welcomed.
2017 GABBY and MERIT AWARD WINNERS
Today we post the winners of the GABBY Awards. We had a total of 550 entries and we recognized 66 Merit Winners and 55 GABBY Winners. I want to take a moment to apologize for the confusion that occurred at the Awards presentation and thank everyone for your patience. Please let the GAB office know as soon as possible if the proper GABBY or Merit Award has not been received.
I would particularly like to praise Monica Pearson and John Wetherbee for their professionalism as MC and Host of the GABBY Awards.
Anyone who would like to order duplicate copies of GABBY or Merit Awards, please contact Monique Wright at the GAB office by email at MWright@gab.org or the main office number 770-395-7200. Copies will be available to winners at the cost of the award and shipping if needed. We can also acknowledge individual participants for a station award and vice versa.
In the next couple of weeks, please be watching for photos from the GABBY Awards with directions of how to order copies. Due to the delay in the pictures being downloaded, the photographer and the GAB have agreed pictures, once available, will be shared at no cost. In the mean time please share your photos and comments with the GAB.
Complete List of 2017 GABBY & Merit Award Winners: http://gab.org/2017-gabby-and-merit-award-winners/ …
Thank You! It is always a great day to be a broadcaster in Georgia.
Bob Houghton
Proud President of Your GAB
