This year's 10th Annual John Drury High School Radio Awards will take place North Central College's Meiley-Swallow Hall, located at 31 S. Ellsworth Street in Naperville, starting at Noon on this Saturday, November 10th. Admission is by invitation only.
North Central College's WONC-FM has sponsored this annual event since 2002. The awards recognize achievement in 12 categories, including Best Newscast, Best Sportscast, Best Promo, Best Public Affairs, and Best High School Radio Station. First, second and third-place winners in each category will receive awards. All nominees will also be offered a $1,000 scholarship to attend North Central College.
Awards are presented to high school radio stations which are licensed as an AM or FM facility and registered with the Federal Communications Commission. As of last year, online-only high school radio stations could also enter. Winners are selected by a board of judges made up of broadcast industry professionals.
The driving force behind this annual event is John Madormo, who is the General Manager of WONC-FM 89.1. Madormo, a former WGN-AM producer for over six years, is also the Assistant Professor of Broadcast Communications at North Central College and has been with the school since 1980.
John Madormo established and named the awards in honor of John Drury, the legendary Chicago broadcaster of WLS-TV, WGN-TV and WBBM-TV, who passed away due to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) on November 25, 2007. "We named the awards for John because we wanted someone who was not just a professional journalist but whose name would invoke the highest standards of character and integrity," Madormo said.
John Drury personally presented the awards to the winning schools for the fist two years the awards were in existence. Unfortunately, as Drury's ALS worsened, he was no longer able to participate after that. Since then, other journalists from WLS-TV/ABC 7 have carried on Drury's tradition to help present the annual awards, including Alan Krashesky, Phil Schwarz, Stacy Baca, Chuck Goudie, Ben Bradley, and John Garcia.
This year, WLS-TV's Ben Bradley returns as Guest of Honor to emcee the event. Bradley is ABC 7 Chicago's Sunday morning news anchor and Emmy Award-winning general assignment reporter. The Chicago native worked in MO & SC, before returning home to work at CLTV from 1998-2002, followed by joining WLS-TV in 2002, where he has been ever since.
Also speaking at the awards ceremony will be former WGN-AM producer/host and former NextMedia personality Laura Dixon-Hirsch. She is now the Assistant Director of the John Drury High School Radio Awards and a 1999 graduate of North Central College. She can still be heard periodically on the popular podcast, "The Maggie & Laura Show" along with former WSSR-FM/Star 96.7 morning personality & APD, Maggie Peterson.
The nominees for the 2012 John Drury High School Radio Awards can be seen HERE.
The WONC-FM website will post up the complete listing all of this weekend's winners, including the 2nd and 3rd Place winners, later next week.
For more information about the annual John Drury High School Radio Awards, email John Madormo at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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