WASHINGTON, DC – NAB will honor Morgan Murphy Stations President Elizabeth Murphy Burns with the NAB Chuck E. Sherman Television Leadership Award at the NAB Small Market Television Exchange in San Diego, September 14.
"Liz's strength and leadership have been a driving force in small market television," said NAB President and CEO David K. Rehr. "Her passion for community service and commitment to local broadcasting make her an obvious choice for this prestigious award."
After attending University of Arizona, Burns immediately entered the field of broadcasting. In 1982 she became vice president of Evening Telegram Company, parent company of Morgan Murphy Stations, which owns WISC-TV Madison; WKBT-TV LaCrosse, WI; KXLY-TV/AM-FM Spokane; KAPP-TV Yakima, WA and KVEW-TV Tri-Cities, WA; and QueenB Radio Madison and Spokane. She was promoted to president in 1999.
Burns has been a pioneer for women in broadcasting, serving as the first woman on the CBS affiliates board and one of the first women on the NAB and TVB boards. Additionally she has championed free press in China and Russia. She has served on the Russian-American Media Entrepreneurship Dialogue, a joint effort by American media outlets designed to bring the expertise and experience of the U.S. media in operating economically independent broadcast and newspaper outlets to their Russian colleagues. In China, Evening Telegram subsidiary RXL Pulitzer developed programming for that country’s educational broadcast systems.
She serves as chairwoman of the board of the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV); and is a director of the Republic Bank in Duluth and of the National Guardian Life Insurance Company in Madison. She is a former member of the board of trustees at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth. Burns currently serves on the NAB Television Board of Directors after serving an earlier stint in the early 1990s. Burns is also an inductee in the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame and was awarded the Broadcaster Foundation Pioneer award.
The award, created in 2003, is named in honor of the late Dr. Charles E. Sherman to recognize an individual demonstrating leadership, service and commitment to local television in smaller markets.
About NAB Small Market Television
Exchange
The Small Market Television Exchange, in its 20th year, is the only national meeting devoted to the concerns of television stations in demographic market areas #70 and above. It features sessions on issues
of particular interest to television broadcasters, with an emphasis on
strategies that generate revenue and control costs.
About NAB
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association that advocates on behalf of more than 8,300 free, local radio and television stations and also broadcast networks before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Courts. Information about NAB can be found at
www.nab.org.
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