Peabody Award

Peabody Award
Awarded for	Recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by television and radio stations, networks, producing organizations, individuals and the World Wide Web.
Presented by	Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia
Country	United States
First awarded	1940
Official website	www.peabody.uga.edu

The George Foster Peabody Awards (Peabody Awards) recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting. Committee member Lambdin Kay, manager of WSB Radio in Atlanta, thought the award would be more credible if it were academically sanctioned and independently administered. He approached John E. Drewry of the University of Georgia’s Henry W. Grady School of Journalism, who enthusiastically endorsed the idea. The Peabody Award was established in 1940 with the school, now the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, as its permanent home.

The Peabody Awards were originally only for radio, but in 1948, television awards were introduced. In the late 1990s additional categories for material distributed via the World Wide Web were added. Materials created solely for theatrical motion picture release are not eligible.

Reflecting excellence in quality rather than popularity or commercial success, the Peabody is the industry’s most competitive honor, with an average of about 25-35 winners chosen annually from more than 1,000 entries.

The award is determined by one criterion—"Excellence". Because submissions are accepted from a wide variety of sources and styles, deliberations seek "Excellence On Its Own Terms." Each entry is evaluated on the achievement of standards it establishes within its own contexts. Entries are self-selected by those making submissions and as a result the quality of competing works is extraordinarily high. The Peabody Awards are then presented only to "the best of the best".

Peabody Judging

The Peabody Awards judging process is unusually rigorous. Evaluation of the more than 1,000 entries typically received begins in early February with some 30 committees composed of two University of Georgia faculty or staff members and a selected student. Each committee is charged with screening or listening to a small number of entries and delivering written recommendations to the Peabody Board, a 16-member panel of scholars, critics and media-industry professionals. Board members discuss recommended entries as well as their own selections at intensive preliminary meetings in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The Board convenes at the Peabody Offices on the University of Georgia campus in late March for final screenings and deliberations. Only unanimously selected programs receive Peabodys. There is no set number of Awards. Since 1941, when the first Awards were presented for work completed in 1940, no more than 36 Awards have been presented in a single year.

Key People

George Foster Peabody (1852–1938), namesake of the awards, was a highly successful investment banker who devoted much of his fortune to education and social enterprise.

Lambdin Kay was the awards chairman for The National Association of Broadcasters when he was asked to create a prize to honor the nation's premier radio programs and performances, as the Pulitzer did for the print press.

John E. Drewry (1902–1983) was the first dean of the University of Georgia's Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He accepted the position of dean when it was created in 1940. That same year he helped Lambdin Kay, general manager of Atlanta's WSB Radio, create the Peabody Awards recognizing excellence in broadcasting.

Dr. Worth McDougald (1926–2007) served as Director of the Peabody Awards program from 1963 until his retirement in 1991.

Barry Sherman (?–2000) was the Director of the George Foster Peabody Awards program at the University of Georgia from 1991 until his untimely death in 2000.

Dr. Horace Newcomb currently holds the Lambdin Kay Chair for the Peabodys' in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. He joined The Peabody Program in 2001.

Award ceremony

The Peabody Awards are formally presented each year in late May or early June at a luncheon in New York City. Past hosts include Walter Cronkite, Leslie Stahl, Jon Stewart and Larry King.

Official sponsors

The Peabody Awards program is an independent, not-for-profit activity supported by entry fees and the annual awards luncheon. The following organizations are Official Sponsors of the Peabody Awards: Broadcasting & Cable, The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Air Lines, Multi-VU, and The Paley Center for Media.

Peabody Awards Archive

The Peabody Awards Collection is the flagship of The Walter J. Brown Media Archive & Peabody Awards Collection. The archives are housed in the Main Library on the north campus of The University of Georgia. The archives mission is to preserve, protect, and provide access to the moving image and sound materials that reflect the collective memory of broadcasting and the history of the state of Georgia and its people. The collection contains nearly every entry for the first major broadcast award given in the United States. Entries begin in 1940 for radio and 1948 for television, and at least 1,000 new entries are received every year—programs created by local, national, and international producers. The collection provides a cultural cross-section of television from its infancy to the present day, featuring news, documentary, entertainment, educational, and children's programming. Once judging is complete all the entries are moved to the Main Library for in-depth cataloging, access, and long term preservation.

External links

• Official site