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- Watch: Can humpback whales experience grief?
Rare footage captured by researchers off Australia's Gold Coast suggests humpback whale mothers may experience grief when their calves die. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago - Rev. Billy Burrell, WCON North Georgia Voice, Dies at 96
Rev. Billy Burrell. Credit: Now Georgia Rev. Billy Burrell, whose gospel devotional and country music morning show made him one of the most recognized voices in north Georgia radio, died Wednesday at the age of 96. Friends of Georgia Radio poignantly recognized Burrell: “Few outside the region ever heard his name, but for anyone who lived in the Georgia mountains north of Atlanta over the last half-century, Burrell’s voice was as familiar as the sunrise.” Up until his 2022 retirement, Burrell hosted mornings on WCON(AM/FM) in Cornelia. “Sunshine Melodies,” Burrell’s devotional program, ran for 71 years. Friends of Georgia Radio believes Burrell’s program to be the longest-running weekday radio show hosted by the same person in North American broadcasting history. “Billy Burrell was an integral part of the station for so many years,” Clayton Foster, part of the family that runs WCON, told our Elle Kehres this year for Radio World’s profile of the station. “He had a morning devotion, hosted the birthday party, opened the barn door and kept his audience informed on so many levels.” Burrell was an ordained minister who pastored more than a dozen churches over his lifetime, including 30 years at Hazel Creek Baptist Church in Mt. Airy. “I felt a definite call of using radio to get the message out to people,” he said according to Friends of Georgia Radio. “I’d encourage everybody, wherever they work, whatever they do, to go ahead and bootleg the Gospel.” According to a biography provided by Friends of Georgia Radio, Burrell began his radio career in 1951 as an early-morning announcer at WLET(AM) in Toccoa, where he hosted a half-hour devotional of gospel music, scripture and prayer. The show’s name came from a misread of a record label: Burrell spotted a 78 RPM disc labeled “Sunshine Medley” and he read it as “Sunshine Melodies.” The name would stick for the rest of his career. While pastoring Calvary Baptist Church in Starkville, Miss., Burrell built a homemade recording setup out of turntables and a reel-to-reel deck and mailed his devotional abc to Georgia for five years so it would never miss a morning. He returned to northeast Georgia to pastor Harmony Baptist Church in Homer and began recording the show for WCON. He joined the station on July 8, 1959. In 1965, Burrell ran into WCON owner John Foster at the old Cornelia post office. Foster needed someone to… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago - Ideastream Public Media Merges With PBS Western Reserve
Ideastream Public Media has announced it will merge with PBS Western Reserve brining together both Cleveland based public media operators. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago - New Fund Aims to Help Develop Young Talent in Wisconsin
“The Young Broadcasters Development Fund.” The name has a nice ring in an industry that competes with so many other media and now often struggles to identify future talent. The fund is new and is managed by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Foundation. It has kicked off with a founding grant from Terry and Sandy Shockley. “Our mission with this fund is to inspire and motivate young people to pursue a career in broadcasting,” the Shockeys were quoted in the announcement. “The rewards are many, and like our WBA members, serving the broadcast license has provided a lifestyle filled with exciting experiences.” Sandy and Terry Shockley Terry and Sandy Shockley are both inductees into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. You can learn about Terry Schockley’s career here and Sandy Shockley’s here. The fund is accepting donations. Michelle Vetterkind, president/CEO of the WBA, called the Shockleys’ donation “a generous and inspiring contribution to the future of broadcasting in Wisconsin.” She said the WBA board of directors had prioritized the creation of a fund in its strategic planning. According to the announcement, the fund will initially provide support to the WBA campus ambassador program, which includes the University of Wisconsi-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater. “Two students on each campus represent broadcasters in student organizations and promote WBA resources and events.” The foundation expects that the fund will expand to support other initiatives aimed at student broadcasters and those starting their careers in the field. [Read Radio World’s series of profiles of next-gen engineers.] The post New Fund Aims to Help Develop Young Talent in Wisconsin appeared first on Radio World. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago - Kennedy Assures Vaccine Skeptics That They Have a ‘Friend at the White Houseâ€...
The health secretary spoke at a conference featuring misinformation about vaccines, including a claim that the success of the polio vaccines was a “fraud.” [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago - Toxic Fracking Waste Becoming a Political Issue in OhioThe Democratic candidate for governor backed restrictions on disposal of fracking wastewater around a hard-hit town, and called for a “thorough investigation” of the dangers. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago
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