KOMU 8 Wins National Service to America Community Award

5550 Highway 63S Columbia, Missouri 65201

Contact(s): Matt Garrett (573) 884-2947 ______

For Immediate Release June 15, 2010

COLUMBIA, MO – The National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation (NABEF)

honored KOMU 8 on Monday with its celebrated Service to America Community Award for Radio and

Television.

This award honors radio and television broadcasters for a single campaign, project or program that

serves the common good or otherwise provides exemplary service to their local community. There is only

one television recipient of this award each year, regardless of market size.

KOMU 8 was honored for its community journalism project, Central Missouri Honor Flight. Central

Missouri Honor Flight is the local hub of the nationwide Honor Flight program that sends terminally ill and

aging veterans to see their Memorials in Washington D.C. at no cost to them.

There are approximately 90 Honor Flight hubs across the country, but Central Missouri Honor Flight

is only one started and sustained by television station employees. KOMU 8 News Anchor Sarah Hill and

Videographer Scott Schaefer began an effort to start this local hub after doing a story about an Honor Flight

Hub in western Missouri. In 2009, Central Missouri Honor Flight raised more than raised more than

$315,000 to send approximately 400 veterans to Washington, DC to see their memorials.

“A campaign of this size is not possible with the efforts of just a few,” said KOMU 8 General

Manager Marty Siddall. “Every department within KOMU 8 played an important role in supporting Central

Missouri Honor Flight so that we could provide this great service our veterans. I’m very proud of what we have accomplished as a team and I thank Sarah and Scott for bringing this cause into our hearts and the hearts of our viewers.” Representatives from KOMU 8 attended the Celebration of Service to America Awards dinner in

Washington D.C. on Monday evening to accept the award in person.

KOMU 8 is a self-funded auxiliary enterprise of the University of Missouri. The station serves a dual purpose within the community. KOMU 8 provides the public with news and entertainment programming while also serving as an educational institution for students of the University of Missouri. The KOMU 8 newsroom is the only one of its kind to also serve as a teaching lab. At KOMU 8, students attending the prestigious University of Missouri School of Journalism are given the unique opportunity to work alongside professional journalists in a real-life newsroom. This program is set up through the school’s Department of

Broadcast Journalism. KOMU 8 also operates Mid-Missouri’s CW station.

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