Personal Award: Ambassador Walter Annenberg

This personal Peabody recognition goes to Ambassador Walter Annenberg in his 80th year for his long and distinguished career, much of which has been devoted to improvement of the use of radio and television in the field of education. It was his idea to create the first televised educational programs on commercial television in the 1940s, especially in a program series called The University of the Air. Later, his perceptive vision and imagination created the joint Corporation for Public Broadcasting/ Annenberg Project, which brought the American viewer such prize winning programs as The Brain, The Constitution: That Delicate Balance, Planet Earth and many others. Millions of Americans have been informed and educated as a result of this innovative approach to the utilization of television. It seemed fitting to the Peabody Board to recognize Ambassador Annenberg as the Peabody Awards moves toward its 50th year. Thus, this award to Ambassador Walter Annenberg for his helping make television, as Edward R. Murrow observed, ” . . . both illuminating and inspiring.”