The Vermont Association of Broadcasters is thrilled to announce this year’s inductees into the VAB Hall of Fame as well as this year’s award winners! These broadcasters will be celebrated during the VAB Hall of Fame & Awards Gala Saturday, December 2nd, 2023 at the Hilton Hotel in Burlington.

2023 Hall of Fame Inductees

Kelli Corbeil, WTSA-FM & WTSA-AM, Brattleboro

Kelli’s career path took an unexpected turn when she fell in love with radio personality Bill Corbeil of WIZN and discovered the world of broadcasting. Together, they took on the challenge of owning and running the local community radio stations WTSA-AM & WTSA-FM. However, shortly after acquiring the stations, her husband Bill had an untimely passing. Kelli had to decide whether to sell the stations or continue as the sole owner. With unwavering support from both the radio and local communities, along with Kelli’s resilience and inner strength, she opted to remain in the radio industry.  

Kelli’s passion for community service is evident in her endeavors to provide local news to Windham County residents, despite rising costs and declining advertising revenue. In 2018, while attending the NAB/RAB Radio Show, she created “99.5 The Beast,” transforming WTSA-AM into its own brand with its own format after receiving requests from her community to create a rock station in Brattleboro. In addition to her role as a small business owner, Kelli advocates for independent radio stations with many trips to Washington DC to speak to our members of congress. She served on the VAB Board of Directors for eight years, holding the positions of Secretary, Treasurer, VP, President, and Past President. She was also instrumental in the transition between Executive Directors in 2018.

 Kelli’s commitment to community service extends beyond the radio industry. She is the President and Co-Chair of Project Feed the Thousands, the largest Southern Vermont Food Drive, and the creator and organizer of Southern Vermont’s “The Brattleboro Brewers Festival,” which is now in its 14th year.

Ken Gilbert, WVTK-FM, Middlebury

Ken Gilbert has been entertaining listeners as a superbly creative radio air personality for over fifty years! He got his start at WFAD-AM in Middlebury in 1971 during the era of “Cousin Brucie” and was imaginative, funny and tight. Ken lovingly compares his experience working at WFAD to “being like the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati.”

Ken is so talented, he could have gone on to a successful career in any major market, but after a brief stint at WACKY 102 FM in Springfield, MA and WDRC-FM in Hartford, CT, Ken chose to come back to Vermont. He worked at WDEV in Waterbury and WJEN-FM in Rutland before making his home at WVTK-FM in Middlebury, where he has been for the past 11 years. A man of many talents, Ken not only hosts the evening show on WVTK, he also helps local businesses grow by creating and scheduling their radio advertising campaigns.

Known for his big heart and even bigger smile, Ken seems to be at almost every event in Addison County. Whether it’s a parade, a fundraiser for HOPE (Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects) or a 5-town fire department food drive, Ken is there! This past year’s Addison County Fair & Field Days was dedicated to Ken for his contributions to the Addison county community. Ken is professional, reliable, funny and supportive of all his colleagues.  

Rod Hill, WOKO-FM & WKOL-FM, South Burlington

Rod’s love of radio began at the age of 11 when he talked his way into going on the air at 58/WRUV-AM, later hosting the Classical show and a Rock show on WRUV-FM. After they figured out he wasn’t a UVM student, he got a part-time gig at 14/WDOT-AM when he was 13 and three years later moved to WVMT-AM. In 1982 he returned to WDOT where he was part of the engineering team that increased WDOT’s power to 5,000 watts and turned WDOT into Vermont’s first AM Stereo station. He returned to WVMT-AM in 1984 and did a short stint at WSYB-AM and WRUT-FM (now WZRT) in Rutland, but most of Rod’s 48+ year career has been spent with Hall Communications radio group.  A true team player, he embraced cowboy boots and country music as Program Director when rocker WQCR-FM flipped to WOKO-FM in 1990. Rod then gave up his popular show on WOKO in order to launch their new station, WKOL-FM as Program Director and air personality in 1995. Eventually, Rod made his way back to WOKO, where he co-hosts “The Morning Roundup” every weekday morning.

Throughout his career, Rod has helped raise millions of dollars for non-profits. One of his fondest memories is when he helped organize three tractor trailers of donated supplies and made the trip to deliver them to flood ravaged Burlington, Iowa, doing live reports from the road along the way on national television. Rod has also donated his DJ services to local causes dozens of times, including providing sound at VAB Conventions for many years.

Not only is Rod a legendary air personality, but he uniquely understands the technical side of radio. After Chief Engineer Dennis Snyder retired, Rod voluntarily took over engineering/IT duties and is now the Chief Engineer for all the Hall stations in four states. Rod Hill’s team-player spirit was recognized with the VAB Broadcaster of the Year award in 2016.

2023 Broadcaster of the Year Award

Vox AM/FM/Digital, Colchester

One attribute of being a great broadcaster is the ability to act quickly and pivot when circumstances beyond your control impact you. That happened to the Vox AM/FM/Digital group on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 when the Winooski river flooded downtown Montpelier. These widespread floods deavasted hundreds of businesses, homes and farms and caused millions of dollars in damage and lost revenue and crops. But imagine working for months on an outdoor festival that draws thousands of people and the area around where its supposed to happen floods four days before. That was the dilema faced by Vox VP of Operations John Mullet and his team as they prepared for National Life Group’s annual Do Go Fest. Months of planning, preparation and promotion all had to change in an instant. So what was supposed to be an in-person outdoor festival was transformed in just a few days into an intimate indoor virtual benefit concert Saturday, July 15th. It included acoustic performances by artists Plain White T’s, lovelytheband, Fastball and Burlington’s All Night Boogie Band. The benefit concert was not only streamed live on Star 92.9 FM and on the Do Good Fest website, but also on WCAX Channel 3 and raised $1.5 million for the Vermont Community Foundation’s Flood Response & Recovery Fund!

But Vox AM/FM/Digital stations didn’t stop there! As news of the devastation and loss became more widespread, the stations developed, coordinated, promoted and executived a massive radiothon in multiple locations in just a few days. Wednesday, July 19th, from 6am-7pm, sister stations Star 92.9, 95 Triple X, 101.3 The Wolf, WVMT, The Game, 96.7 MeTVfm & 92.1 WVTK were set up broadcasting live from locations in Barre, Essex Junction and South Burlington, collecting even more donations. In all, their impromptu radiothon generated an additional $10,000 for Vermont Community Foundation’s VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund.

2023 Distinguished Service Award

Jeff Garfield, WGMT-FM, Lyndonville

Jeff grew up listening to “The Voice of the Northeast Kingdom” Don Mullally on WSTJ and has carried on the tradition by becoming the new voice of the NEK. With 20 years at WGMT-FM in Lyndon as an Air Personality and later Program Director, Jeff Garfield personifies local radio. He started with a teen-focused nighttime show gaining a loyal audience of young people. Four years later, Jeff moved to afternoons and added a live trivia show as well as a live weather show with Mark Breen from the Fairbanks Museum. When it became available 10 years ago, Jeff moved to the Morning Show and has become a fixture of the Northeast Kingdom. Jeff gets called upon by the community to help in many ways. He is the announcer for Lyndonville’s Stars & Stripes parade and festival; he regularly interviews agencies that help NEK residents and Jeff volunteers at WGMT’s December Food Drive that raises 30,000 lbs of food for local food shelves.

2023 Snyder-Teffner Award

Larry Page, WPTZ-TV & Vermont Public

As a broadcast engineer, Larry shows extraordinary skill in transmitter maintenance and repair. Wanting to remain on the leading edge of innovation and efficiency, he consistently grows his knowledge of new transmitter and microwave technology.

Over the years, Larry has been on-call to assist with Transmitter repair, sometimes even in the middle of the night. He has worked with whatever team is in need to get them back on the air, braving the cold and snow to get up Mount Mansfield.

Larry is someone who not only earns the respect and admiration of those he works with, but also returns that respect to others in every interaction.

2023 Alan Noyes Community Service Award

Hall Communications Radio Group, South Burlington

The Brendon P. Cousino Med 47 Foundation was created following Brendon’s tragic death caused by a wrong-way driver on 1-89 in 2015. It honors Brendon, who was a carpenter and EMT, by giving scholarships to local trade school students and providing funding and equipment to local rescue squads. The entire staff at Hall Communications holds this non-profit near and dear, which is why everyone from sales, promotions and programming are invested in helping the foundation raise money.

WIZN & WBTZ made them the benefactor of their annual Rocks the Ridge Golf Tournament, which generated a $3,100 donation this year. The extended network of Cousino family and friends is also very involved in this event, either playing or volunteering on the holes!

All five stations also “adopted” and supported the fundraising events organized by Cousino family members ands volunteers. This includes an indoor yard sale in New Haven, VT in February as well as two events held at Brendon’s parent’s home in Bristol, VT; a Garden Shoppe in May and a Halloween Haunted Forest last October. In all, nearly $41,000 was raised during the last 12 months!

2023 Rising Star Award Winners

Jess Langlois, WCAX-TV

From an early age, Jess wanted to be a broadcast meteorologist. After graduating from NVU-Lyndon’s atomspheric sciences program, her first job was at a station in “tornado alley” which honed her skills for tracking severe weather and conveying important information quickly. Jess returned to Vermont to join WCAX-TV after the legendary Sharon Meyer retired and she shines both on camera and off. Not only is she always coming up with fresh ideas to make her weathercasts stand out, but Jess also took it upon herself to re-design a weather graphics package in need of TLC.

Passionate about climate change, Jess is eager to do special reports on anything climate related and finds ways to intergrate its impact into her forecasting, like during the floods in July. Jess is always ready to do live shots “out in the weather” during newscasts and as an on-air personality, strives to inspire young women interested in science. According to her peers, Jess is multi-talented, creative and hard-working and has grown tremendously over the past few years!

Molly Ormsbee, WPTZ-TV

In 2020, Molly started as a production assistant and moved to the NBC5 news department as a weekend newscast producer in 2021. Recognizing Molly’s talent, she was quickly promoted to the dayside team, producing the 5:00 and 5:30 hour and spearheading story selection for the early evening news block. Stepping up to fill in and take on extra responsibility, Molly is always looking for new ways to grow and improve. In the Spring of 2023, Molly was promoted to Executive Producer, overseeing the morning time slot and training new producers on best practices for a dynamic daily newscast.

Passionate about environmental coverage, Molly has spearheaded story-telling efforts in NBC5’s Forecasting Our Future franchise, highlighting the work happening in our communities to promote conservation efforts. Molly embraces her role as a leader and has earned the respect of her colleagues through hard work and dedication. Peers seek her out for guidance and news managers trust Molly to run editorial meetings, take on special projects and help train new producers.

2023 Friend of Broadcasters Award

Curtis LeGeyt, National Association of Broadcasters

As NAB President and CEO, Curtis serves as the chief advocate for America’s free over-the-air television and radio broadcasters. During his time at NAB, Curtis has led several highly successful efforts to advocate for laws that strengthen local broadcasters’ ability to innovate and serve their communities. This includes permanent reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization (STELAR), securing $1 billion to reimburse stations impacted by the spectrum auction repack and successful passage of the Music Modernization Act.

Curtis and the NAB Government Relations team are currently advocating for fourteen other important issues at the federal level including the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, the Local Radio Freedom Act and the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. In additional, Curtis regularly testifies on behalf of broadcasters in congress about important issues like outdated ownership rules, the impact of virtual MVPDs, NexGen TV’s rollout and broadcasters ability to remain competitive in today’s marketplace.

Prior to joining NAB in 2011, Curtis served as the senior counsel to Senator Patrick Leahy in Washington DC and holds a special place in his heart for Vermont. View the Radio Ink cover story on Curtis LeGeyt.