Friday, October 19, 2018

Denver Press Club Hall of Fame

The Denver Press Club’s Hall of Fame awards and dinner is becoming Denver’s version of the White House Correspondents Dinner. A crowd of several hundred mingled with the region’s top media talent, managers and owners. This year’s honorees were all stars of the metro Denver’s legacy media. The Press Club in recent years has managed to attract television and radio to its historic focus on the print media. The expanded participation is a product of the new president, David Milstead (about to leave for a newspaper position in Toronto), his officers, and former Channel 4 and 9 president, Roger Ogden.

Mike Landess, a veteran TV journalist at 9KUSA, 7KMGH and now Channel 2/FOX 31, was the MC (he is about to leave on a sabbatical). The awardees were:

Jerry Bell – managing editor and voice of KOA, the region’s most powerful talk and sports radio, with station manager Kathy Walker and a contingent of iHeartMedia’s top local management in attendance.

Greg Moore, now at CU, recently completed 14 years editing the Denver Post, from the War in Iraq, to the great recession, through Colorado’s recovery and reputation as a political swing state. (He managed to leave just before Donald Trump became the nominee.) The Post was well represented with current and former employees.

John Temple, final editor publisher, and Janet Reeves, photo editor, were key actors in the late Rocky Mountain News – the paper many in Denver still mourn after its demise in 2009. Its loss marked the beginning of the long slide of print news in Denver, with the diminished Post holding on.

Anne Trujillo of Denver 7 has a 30-year plus, Emmy winning career in TV journalism.

Lowell Thomas, one of the nation’s earliest and best known radio and TV personalities, was honored. His career spanned 40 years, started in Victor, Colorado, and included a DU degree.

Competitors and partners of legacy media, mostly online, were also well-represented, including the Colorado Independent, Colorado Sun and Colorado Politics.

Hall of Fame inductees | Photo: Denver Press Club newsletter

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