It’s a thrill for me to join friends like Charley Johnson and Bill and Marietta Ekberg and others like Pat Miles and Don Shelby in the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Association of Television Art and Science’s Silver Circle. The award is given for 25 years or more of service to the television industry. Congratulations to fellow inductees Tim Seaman of KCAU-TV in Sioux City, Iowa, and Brendan Henehan of Twin Cities PBS.

Below is the little acceptance speech I gave this weekend in Bloomington at the Emmy gala.

“First, I would like to say a word of thanks, especially to those of you who were here last year. Last year, our little newsroom, WDAZ  in Grand Forks, won an Emmy for Team Coverage. It was the first Emmy the station had ever been nominated for, or won, in its almost 50-year history. And all of you were so nice to us. You bought us drinks. And you talked to us. And you made us feel so much a part of this Emmy community. It meant a great deal to our mostly young staff. It meant a great deal to me as well. So, thank you.

“This award is … ridiculous.  Ridiculous in the very best way. My first thought when J.J. called to tell me I would be getting it was that the judges must have been drunk out of their minds at the time!

“Be that as it may, I’m not giving it back. But I do want to share it with a couple of people who happen to be sitting at my table this evening.

“First, Julie Moravchik, the last news director I worked with in a fairly long television career. Julie taught me a great deal. Not so much about news, I suppose, difficult as it is to teach an old dog new tricks.

“But Julie taught me a great deal about friendship. She taught me that you can be as tenacious a news director as ever walked into a newsroom, that you can care most about getting the story fast and first, but at the same time, you can care an equal amount about each member of your staff as individuals … as people.

“I also want to share this with another woman sitting at my table. (You should know, I like women.) She is my roommate, my best friend and my current wife, not necessarily in that order, Ginny Dullum. Ginny spent way too many nights home alone over the years, way too many holidays, too many weekends home alone, while I was out somewhere doing the work that I loved. Ginny, I share this with you.

“And finally, to another woman who is not at our table tonight, my 94-year-old mother who passed away a couple of weeks ago. My mother never understood the news business, I don’t think. And I don’t think she ever understood the people in the news business, including her own son. But she was always greatly amused by all of it. So, mom, this is for you, too.

“Thank you all very much for this.  I accept this honor with a great deal of humility and much gratitude.”