Athens, Ga. – David J. Barrett, president and chief executive officer of Hearst Television Inc., has been named recipient of the 2011 DiGamma Kappa Distinguished Achievement Award in Broadcasting.
Barrett will be honored during the annual DGK/Georgia Association of Broadcasters Banquet on, March 22, at 6:30 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn. Earlier that same day he will visit the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and guest lecture on “TV in the Age of Transmedia” in a telecommunications media and technology course.
DiGamma Kappa is the nation’s oldest professional broadcasting society for students and was founded at UGA in 1939. Barrett is the 38th annual recipient of its Distinguished Achievement Award in Broadcasting. He joins previous recipients and broadcast luminaries such as Wolf Blitzer, Ed Bradley, Barbara Walters, Charles Kuralt, Ted Turner, Linda Ellerbee, Brian Ross, Bernard Shaw, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Pat Mitchell and Barbara Cochran.
Barrett joined Hearst in 1984 as general manager of the company’s Baltimore radio group stations. He later assumed general manager responsibilities for the Hearst Radio Group and then for WBAL-TV in Baltimore. In 1991, he relocated to New York City as vice president of Hearst Corporation and deputy general manager of broadcasting with operating oversight for the company’s television and radio stations.
In 1997, at the merger of Hearst Broadcasting and Argyle Television into Hearst-Argyle Television Inc., Barrett became executive vice president and chief operating officer. He was named president and chief executive officer in 2001. Hearst-Argyle Television was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange from 1998 until 2009, when it was taken private by Hearst Corporation and renamed Hearst Television.
Hearst Television Inc. comprises 29 television stations, and two radio stations, in geographically diverse U.S. markets. The company’s television stations reach approximately 18% of U.S. TV households, making it one of the largest U.S. television station groups. The company owns 13 ABC affiliated stations and is the largest ABC affiliate group; it owns 10 NBC affiliates, and is the second-largest NBC affiliate owner; and owns two CBS affiliates.
Barrett, a director of Hearst Corporation, also is a trustee of the trust established under the will of William Randolph Hearst and a director of the Hearst Foundations. He has served on various boards of directors for organizations such as the Association for Maximum Service Television Inc., the Broadcasters Foundations, the National Association of Broadcasters and the NAB’s Educational Foundation.
He is a past chairman of the Board of Governors for the ABC Television Affiliates Association and the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Security and Reliability Council. He has previously served on the boards of directors of the International Radio and Television Society, the Advertising Council, and Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc.
Barrett has been the recipient of numerous industry honors including being named Broadcasting & Cable magazine’s “Broadcaster of the Year” in 2004 and receiving the Media Institute’s American Horizon Award in 2005. He has been inducted into both the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Management Hall of Fame and the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame. In 2010, he received the First Amendment Leadership Award from the Radio Television Digital News Foundation.
For more information on the DGK banquet, contact Cheryl Christopher at cherylch@uga.edu or 706/542-3785.
Established in 1915, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers undergraduate majors in advertising, digital and broadcast journalism, magazines, newspapers, public relations, publication management and mass media arts. The college offers two graduate degrees, and is home to the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu or follow @UGAGrady on Twitter.