June 15, 2010
WASHINGTON – Westwood One radio show host Jim Bohannon, Radio Television Digital News Association President Emeritus Barbara Cochran, Washingtonian magazine Editor-at-Large Jack Limpert and former Newsweek magazine Washington Bureau Chief Mel Elfin were inducted today into the Hall of Fame of the Washington, D.C., Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).
The D.C. Pro chapter's Hall of Fame dinner was held at Maggiano’s Little Italy in Washington, D.C. This year's Dateline Awards for journalism excellence also were given out.
The D.C. Pro chapter’s 2010 Distinguished Service Award was presented to Sue Kopen Katcef for her many years of service as an ambassador for student and professional journalists.
Bohannon is host of “The Jim Bohannon Show” and the news magazine program “America In The Morning,” which are heard across the nation. He was voted one of "The 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts in America" by Talkers Magazine three years in a row and is a member of the national Radio Hall of Fame.
As president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, Cochran led that organization into its recent restructuring as RTDNA. Earlier in her career, she was vice president and Washington bureau chief of CBS News, executive producer of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” vice president of news for National Public Radio and managing editor of the Washington Star.
Limpert had been editing The Washingtonian, one of the nation's most popular and respected city magazines, for more than 40 years when he stepped down as editor last fall. During his tenure, the magazine won National Magazine Awards for public service, reporting, feature writing, and service to the individual.
During Elfin’s long service as Washington bureau chief of Newsweek, the magazine produced strong coverage of the Pentagon papers, Watergate and other big stories of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In 1987, Elfin was hired by U.S. News and World Report to revamp its system for rating the nation’s colleges and universities. As executive editor of “America’s Best Colleges,” Elfin and others combined the rankings with coordinated stories on American higher education to create a lucrative franchise for U.S. News.
Kopen Katcef is SPJ’s national campus adviser at-large and adviser to the University of Maryland student chapter. She is also a member of the board of the SPJ’s D.C. Pro chapter and is president of the Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters Association. Previous Distinguished Service Award winners include Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, longtime broadcast journalist for AP Radio and retired Director of Media Relations for BellSouth Corporation Bill McCloskey, McClatchy Newspaper corporate recruiter Reginald Stuart and retired NBC4 writer and producer Tom Simonton.
In the Dateline Awards, prizes were given for print, radio and TV journalism. For the first time, online journalism and blogs were recognized.
The $1,000 Robert D.G. Lewis Watchdog Award went to John Pekkanen of Washingtonian for "Call 911!" The award goes to a journalist "whose work best exemplifies journalism aimed at protecting the public from abuses by those who would betray the public trust."
There were 178 entries in this year's Dateline Awards competition.
Washingtonian had the most finalists this year with 18, followed by The Hill with 11 and WTOP with seven. A list of the finalists and judges' comments about winning entries will be posted at www.spjdc.org.