Athens, Ga. – Three University of Georgia telecommunications students received awards during the annual DiGamma Kappa banquet held on Feb. 27 in Athens. DGK is the nation’s oldest professional broadcasting society for students and was founded at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1939.
Senior broadcast news major Renee Williams and senior telecommunication arts major Katherine Eubanks were recognized as the best broadcast interns in Georgia and were recipients of the Esther Award for their outstanding performance in a radio or television internship. The Esther Award honors the late Esther S. Pruett, a staunch supporter of students and founding member of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters, sponsor of the award.
Born in Jamaica, Williams moved to Georgia at the age of three where she was raised by her mother, Annmarie Phillips and her grandmother, Ralda Brewster. She attended Lovejoy High School in Hampton and graduated in the top ten percent of her class. This past summer, the broadcast news major completed an internship at WGXA Fox 24 News in Macon. After graduation she plans to start her career as a broadcast news reporter for a television station.
Eubanks attended McIntosh High School in Peachtree City. She is in the Honors Program and is double majoring in telecommunication arts and political science. The daughter of Bill and Kelly Eubanks plans to attend law school after graduation and eventually would like to make documentary films about the federal court system.
Jay Black, a broadcast news major from Suwanee, received the WSB Radio Award for his commitment to community service through radio broadcasting. The WSB Radio Award was created by one of Atlanta’s top radio stations, News/Talk 750 WSB. Awarded annually, it recognizes a student in telecommunications who shows an outstanding commitment to community service and plans to embark on a career in radio.
Black is a graduate of Collins Hill High School in Suwanee. He currently works at several radio stations in Athens, Gainesville and Atlanta. He just finished his first season as the play-by-play announcer for 960 The Ref’s, Athens area high school football game of the week. Black also does play-by-play for high school basketball and baseball games on WDUN-AM and WGGA-AM in Gainesville and provides high school football coverage for 680 the Fan in Atlanta.
The senior broadcast news major also anchors the midday news on WGAU in Athens and occasionally at WDUN and WNGC. Black produces the UGA women’s basketball games for WGMG-FM where he also has been a DJ. In 2005, he was co-host and producer of the Hardy Chevrolet Scoreboard Show on three stations in Gainesville.
Black began his radio career six years ago as a statistician and analyst for the high school football broadcast on WLKQ-FM in Buford where he remained until 2004. He also writes for the Gwinnett Daily Post, the Athens Banner Herald and is a statistician for CSS TV. He is the son of Jimmy and Teresa Black. Black will graduate from Grady College in December and plans to continue his play-by-play career, hopefully covering minor league baseball.
Established in 1915, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication provides seven undergraduate majors including advertising, broadcast news, magazines, newspapers, public relations, publication management and telecommunication 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, visit www.grady.uga.edu.