Preserving the history, heritage and works
of electronic media
Pictured: NBC is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2026. Over that time, the network has poked fun at just about everything, including itself and its corporate masters with its award-winning sitcom 30 Rock. It ran from 2006 to 2013.
Our principal mission is supporting the Library of American Broadcasting at the University of Maryland. Through its collections, the LAB tells the extraordinary story of electronic media’s first century and lights the way into the second.
We encourage all efforts to preserve, explore and document the history of electronic media and to enrich the public’s understanding of the media and how it impacts the world.
And each year we salute the giants of electronic media — leading business people, journalists, performers, technologists and program producers, past and present — who have made it all possible.
For more on the honorees, visit our Giants 2026 page.
The Giants of 2025 and Friends
The Giants class of 2025 was inducted at LABF’s annual awards luncheon at Gotham Hall in New York on Nov. 14, 2025.
The Giants (seated, l-r): Peter Alexander, NBC News, who represented NBC, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary year; Lesley Visser, network sports correspondent; David Muir, ABC News; Lynn Beall, TV station group executive; Rick Dees, multimedia entertainer and entrepreneur; John Feore, communications attorney; Gary Sandy, stage, screen and film actor; Dick Ferguson, radio group executive.
Standing are LABF board members, except those otherwise identified (l-r): Harry Jessell; Steven Portnoy, of ABC Radio, winner of the LABF Preservation Award; Mike McVay; Heidi Raphael; Heather Cohen; Julie Talbot; Ginny Morris; Dr. Judy Kuriansky;Tony Coles; Jack Goodman; Ernesto Mourelo; Joyce Tudryn; Dennis Wharton; Chachi Denes; Jeff Liberman; David Kennedy; Deborah Parenti; April Carty-Sipp; Kathleen Kirby;Wally Podrazik; John Taylor; Mary Collins; Bill Whitaker, CBS News, Giants luncheon emcee; Gary Chapman; and Jim Morley.
Photo: Wendy Moger Bross
Insight Award
‘26 Goes to Mo
CBS Sunday Morning Correspondent Mo Rocca, in accepting the LABF Insight Award at the NAB Show in April, said he doing what he always felt he was meant to do — telling stories about people and history.
“I'm the guy who pulls over to the side of the road to read historic markers, to know what happened in any given spot, to know who lived and died there before me,” he said. “And I think in uncertain times, stories about the past can make the ground feel a little steadier, a little firmer. They can help us understand the other. They can help make us less quick to judge.”
An award-winning correspondent for Sunday Morning since 2011, Rocca is known for blending journalism, history, and humor across a wide range of subjects. He is also the creator and host of the podcast Mobituaries, a bestselling author, and a frequent panelist on Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!. Earlier in his career, he was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Noting his interest in obituaries, Rocca shared precisely how he would like his own to read: “Mo Rocca, comma, who made people interested in things they didn't expect to be interested in, comma, died today. Period. He was 135.”
A fuller account of his remarks is found here.
Joining Rocca at the presentation were several LABF board members and executives (l-r): Jeff Liberman: Julie Talbot; Mary Collins, executive director; Dan Finn, director of philantropy; Co-Chair Deborah Parenti; Rocca; Co-Chair Chachi Denes; April Carty-Sipp; Wally Podrazik; and Kathleen Kirby.
TED TURNER: 1938-2016
Ted Turner was more than a media mogul—he was a visionary who reshaped how we see the world. Born in 1938, he built CNN from the ground up, turning it into a global news powerhouse that brought clarity, courage, and compassion to audiences everywhere.
Ted’s legacy spans a vast multimedia empire. Beyond CNN, it includes Turner Broadcasting System to TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies. He also championed causes from environmental protection to human rights, founding the Turner Foundation and the United Nations Foundation to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
Today, we remember a man who built a global media empire, believed in the power of truth, the importance of diversity in storytelling, and the responsibility of public service. It was a honor to place him among our Giants of Broadcasting in 2012.
— The Board of the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation
Ambassadors
of Preservation
The LABF has awarded its first four $2,500 grants to organizations active in preserving the historical treasures of broadcasting and other electronic media.The grantees were chosen on the basis of historical significance; methodology and feasibility; accessibility and public availability; and impact.
California Historical Radio Society (pictured), for preserving, interpreting, and sharing the history of electronic communication in the Bay Area and beyond.
Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy, for its work in collecting, restoring and sharing classic radio programs from the 1930's through 1960's.
TCMediaNow, for the preservation video and film archive of Stan Turner, a legendary Twin Cities broadcaster and Minnesota Broadcast Hall of Fame member.
WHRO Public Media, for preservation of 20 hours of early education that it produced and broadcast.
For the second consecutive year, the LABF served as the official presenting sponsor of the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Career Fair and Graduate Student Showcase, held in conjunction with the NAB Show in Las Vegas.
The April 21 fair connected top students, industry professionals, and recruiters in a dynamic environment designed to foster talent discovery, mentorship, and meaningful career connections.
Last year, several hundred students and professional attended the four-hour event, where they met with recruiters and representatives of 25 leading broadcasting companies and graduate schools.
“We were incredibly excited to partner again with the LABF,” said Heather Birks, executive director of the BEA. “LABF’s continued dedication to preserving broadcasting’s legacy while championing its future aligns perfectly with BEA’s mission to support the academic and professional development of students entering the broadcast and media industries.”
LABF Back As BEA Career Fair Sponsor
LABF Executive Director Mary Collins and Co-Chairman Chachi Denes show their support for the annual gathering.
Spot On America’s 250th
To aid broadcasters in celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, LABF is providing customizable :30 and :60 spots highlighting the vital role radio and TV stations have played in capturing the nation’s most defining moments.
With theme, “Before it was history, it was broadcast,” the campaign celebrates broadcasting’s ability to connect communities to history in real time.
The spots are designed as flexible “shells,” enabling stations to incorporate their own voices, stories, and archival content. Each includes royalty-free music and, in the television versions, patriotic visuals.
“Before it was history,
It was broadcast.”
Stations interested in the spot “shells” should contact LABF Exec. Dir. Mary Collins at Mary@LABFMedia.org or 847-910-8878.
The LAB Collections Blog
Melanie Pincus, a graduate student in the University of Maryland’s information sciences program, is mining the archives of the Library of America Broadcasting at the university’s College Park campus and forging the nuggets into a lively blog that provides new and interesting insights into broadcast history.
The LABF encourages you to visit the blog, where currently you will meet Helen Sioussat, the woman who succeeded Edward R. Murrow as director of talks and public affairs for CBS Radio (Murrow had an imminent war to cover); Nick Kersta, of NBC, who was deeply involved in the roll out RCA’s pioneering TV system in 1939 (his suggestion for programming: “Try everything”) and Edythe Meserand, who was bounced from her job at NBC by an “efficiency expert,” but went on to enjoy a long career in radio and become a founding member of the American Women in Radio and Television (now the Alliance for Women in Media).
Pincus’s mining operation has also uncovered a 1935 script of the long-running radio show, Fibber McGee and Molly; lobbying materials related to the National Association of Broadcasters’ push to win passage of the all-important Cable Act of 1992; a 1938 schedule of fees for union talent on radio (solo singers could make $17 [$388 in 2025 dollars] for a 15-minute performance); and, oddly, a pair of signature glasses and bowtie that belonged to Dave Garroway, the first host of NBC’s Today show.
“Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows
to the world and inspire us
to explore and achieve.”
— Sidney Sheldon, TV producer and author