Former ESPN executive Dan Shoemaker is among 10 people named to the West Virginia Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
The other inductees are Jack Canfield, Dick Callaway, Jack Deakin, the late Lloyd Scott Garten, Randy Kerbawy, Michael Kidd, the late Paul Krakowski, Fritz Leichner and Lacy Neff.
Shoemaker became ESPN vice president of college development in 1994 and retired from full-time duties with the network in the past year. He began his broadcasting career as a color analyst for Marshall University football and basketball games on local TV stations while working as a teacher and coach at Huntington East High School.
An induction ceremony will be held Nov. 15 at the Museum of Radio and Technology in Huntington.
West Virginia Public Radio’s part time classical music announcer, Frank Stowers, was among the 2013 class of inductees into the West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame on October 12.
The remaining eight inductees are: Jack Kane, Ralph Allen, Charles Baily, Shirly “Kitty” Bocock, the late Tom Hicks, Kay Murray, Emil Varney and George Woody.
Stowers’ first job in radio was after World War II as an announcer at WHIS Radio in Bluefield. A graduate of Duke University, he later worked in Human Resources at Union Carbide in Charleston from 1956 until his retirement in 1985. He was one of Carbide’s media relations contacts and did narrations for company film and TV productions. Since retiring, he has spent the past 28 years doing what he loves — working at West Virginia Public Radio as a part time staff announcer. A job he continues to this day.
The West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame is located at the Museum of Radio & Technology in Huntington. It’s mission is to commemorate exceptional broadcasters, who through talent and dedication, have brought great honor to the state or contributed the most to its cultural heritage by entertaining, informing, or otherwise enhancing the means of broadcasting; and to provide a repository at the museum for a collection of broadcasting memorabilia to keep alive the memory of those we celebrate so that their examples of excellence may educate and inspire future generations.
Credit Beth Vorhees
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Frank Stowers and his wife of Emita.
Notables who have been inducted into the West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame since its inception eight years ago include Soupy Sales, Don Knotts, Little Jimmy Dickens, Bob Denver and Larry Groce, host of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Mountain Stage.
