By Vince Benigni
The most coveted prize in broadcasting and cable got its start in a small office on the top floor of Atlanta's historic Biltmore Hotel in 1938 when a pair of legendary visionaries were brought together by a UGA graduate, still an influential voice in broadcasting today, in her eighties.
The National Association of Broadcasters had asked its awards chairman, Lambdin Kay, to create a broadcasting award to honor the nation's premier radio programs and performers, as the Pulitzer did for the print press. Kay, then the innovative general manager of WSB-AM in Atlanta, summoned his continuity editor, Lessie Smithgall.
"Mr. Kay called me into his office during a coffee break," says Smithgall, "and asked if there was a foundation at Georgia, my alma mater, where we could get help in establishing these awards. Well, Mr. Drewry was my mentor and a good friend at the university, and I suggested him to Mr. Kay."
John Drewry was dean of the School of Journalism at UGA. Kay called him--and together they founded the Peabody Awards.
This year, for the first time, Lessie Smithgall will be joining the honorees at the Peabody ceremony in New York. Earlier this year, Smithgall and her husband, Charles, donated $250,000 to establish the Lambdin Kay Professorship for the Peabody Awards. Charles Smithgall, Kay's administrative assistant from 1936 to 1940, has founded a number of Georgia radio stations and newspapers. The gift will provide support for the professional activities of the director of the Peabody Awards, Barry Sherman.
"I am thrilled and honored to receive the Lambdin Kay Professorship," says Sherman, who is also a professor of telecommunications at UGA. "First, and foremost, it recognizes the principals of the Peabody: its creator (Mr. Kay, a 1989 inductee into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame) and Mrs. Smithgall, who was primarily responsible for the link between the awards and the University of Georgia."
