WFUV Honors Charlie Rose And Doc Emrick

On November 2, 2015, FUV hosted its inaugural "On the Record" event at Fordham University Law School. It was a joyful celebration of achievement in news and sports broadcasting, honoring a pair of professional legends, CBS and PBS newscaster Charlie Rose and sportcaster Mike "Doc" Emrick, and a pair of talented Fordham undergraduates. The event raised more than $200,000 to support WFUV's media training of Fordham students.

Appropriately, the evening's witty MC was a WFUV alumnus, Connell McShane, who is now a Fox Business Network correspondent and news anchor for "Imus in the Morning." He introduced WFUV General Manager Chuck Singleton, who brought up WFUV News Director George Bodarky and Executive Sports Producer Bob Ahrens and then presented the first WFUV Excellence in Journalism Award to Fordham junior Rob Palazzolo and the first Bob Ahrens Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism to another Fordham senior, Anthony Pucik.

After dinner and remarks by Fordham Provost Dr. Stephen Friedman and Fordham President Fr. Joseph McShane, S.J. (no relation to Connell), it was time for the professional awards. Charles Osgood, the anchor of "CBS Sunday Morning," reminisced a bit about working at WFUV as a student in the early '50s, then presented the Charles Osgood Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism to Rose, the anchor of "Charlie Rose" on PBS and co-anchor of "CBS This Morning." Rose paid tribute to his CBS colleague as a wordsmith and spoke of the power of journalism to tell the story of news events.

Next up, McShane introduced a brief video of the ever-eloquent Vin Scully, praising the work of Mike "Doc" Emrick, who was about to receive the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting. WFUV's Bob Ahrens made the presentation to his friend Emrick, an Emmy Award-winning play-by-play announcer for NBC's and NBCSN's NHL coverage. Emrick spoke graciously about the people who have supported him throughout his long career.

For many present, the highlight of the evening was the convivial, 20-minute conversation, moderated by longtime TV anchor and journalist Jane Pauley, with the honorees. Bantering with Rose, her CBS News cohort, and Emrick, she noted that they both had small town origins: Rose in North Carolina and Emrick in Indiana, which also happens to be her home state. Pauley sought Rose's opinion about the task of moderating presidential debates and elicited Emrick's memories of his persistence while breaking into broadcasting.

Thanks to the WFUV and Fordham development staff for their teamwork in pulling off the event, to the Fordham administration and Board of Trustees, and to the WFUV Advisory Board for their support!