Multitalented, award-winning actress Christine Baranski, CBS News anchor Jeff Glor, WGRZ-TV (Channel 2) weathercaster Maria Genero and WKSE-FM (98.5) morning personality Janet Snyder headline the 2023 class of the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.
The seven-member class announced recently is rounded out by Tim Wenger, the operations manager of AM stations WBEN, WGR and WWKB; retired radio announcer and programmer Jerry Reo; and Kurt Murphy, the art director of WIVB-TV (Channel 4.).
“We are proud to have such an amazing class for this year’s Hall of Fame,” said Steve Monaco, president of the Buffalo Broadcasters Association. “Each inductee has made important contributions to broadcasting in Buffalo in their own way.”
Baranski is the fourth national TV celebrity from Western New York in the last three years to enter the Hall as the organization expanded the categories eligible. Actor William Fichtner and the late Lucille Ball were honored in 2021, and writer-producer Tom Fontana (“St. Elsewhere,” “Homicide,” “Oz”) was honored in 2022.
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The Buffalo to Hollywood quartet entered the Hall after the association opened its categories to include more Arts in Broadcasting people.
Glor joins the late Tim Russert and CNN veteran Wolf Blitzer as national news broadcasters in the Hall who haven’t worked on the air in Buffalo.
The 2023 class will be celebrated at a Sept. 21 event at Samuel’s Grand Manor, with WGRZ-TV’s Kate Welshofer of “Most Buffalo” and retired WKBW-TV (Channel 7) anchor Keith Radford as co-hosts. Tickets can be purchased at buffalobroadcasters.com
The group’s organizers report that Baranski and Glor plan to attend.
Here is a brief biography for each inductee, with material provided by the BBA augmented by this reporter.
A Cheektowaga native and graduate of Villa Maria Academy, Baranski has had memorable TV roles in “The Good Wife,” the sequel “The Good Fight,“ the situation comedy Cybill” alongside Cybill Shepherd, “The Big Bang Theory” and the HBO drama “The Gilded Age.”
Her lengthy list of movie credits, include “Mamma Mia!,” “The Birdcage” and “Into the Woods.”
Her stage career includes roles in Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing” for which she won a Tony Award, “Hurlyburly,” “Sweeney Todd,” and “Mame.”
She has won an Emmy Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Critic’s Choice Movie Award, two Tony Awards and two Drama Desk Awards.
A Town of Tonawanda native, Glor is now one of the three hosts of “CBS Saturday Morning” and a CBS special correspondent after previously having been the anchor of the “CBS Evening News.”
A Syracuse University graduate, Glor started his career at a Syracuse station and anchored in Boston before joining CBS.
He is a huge supporter of the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres and has done several stories on the professional sports teams and their owners, Kim and Terry Pegula.
Maria Genero began her career in radio and has completed the local TV hat trick of working at WKBW-TV (as anchor) and WIVB (in weather) as well as at WGRZ.
Genero began her career in radio and has completed the local TV hat trick of working at WKBW-TV (as anchor) and WIVB (in weather) as well as at WGRZ.
She worked at stations in New York, Los Angeles and Miami before returning to her native Western New York.
Janet Snyder is the co-host of “Janet and Nick (Picholas) in the Morning” on Kiss 98.5.
Snyder is the co-host of “Janet and Nick (Picholas) in the Morning” on Kiss 98.5. The 1983 Williamsville East graduate worked at New York’s top-rated Z-100 for four years before returning to her native Western New York in 1992 and shortly later became the first woman to lead a morning show in Buffalo.
She previously worked at WGRZ for a decade, primarily on a Saturday morning show “Western New York Living” as well as “Healthy Zone,” and “Your Today in Western New York.”
A Geneva, N.Y., native, Reo moved to Buffalo in 1968 to become music director at the former WSYL and afternoon drive personality and was a music director and on-air personality at WGR in its pre-sports days. He became the station’s sports director and also worked in morning news.
His distinctive voice may be best known to some Western New Yorkers as the public address announcer for University at Buffalo teams for more than 20 years and as an announcer for the Buffalo Bisons.
Murphy won a New York Emmy Award for his dual roles of co-producer and art director of the 2021 prime-time special, “The Buffalo Story: History Happens Here,” anchored and reported by Rich Newberg.
Murphy has earned four New York Emmy Awards, four Broadcast Designer International Awards, 10 Telly Awards, two Communicator Awards and many regional design awards.
Wenger remains operations manager/director of content and digital strategy for three AM stations owned by Audacy Radio, formerly Entercom, in Buffalo. He worked as reporter and anchor before becoming the news director at WBEN.
In addition to celebrating the new members of the Hall, State Supreme Court Justice Penny Wolfgang will receive the Service to Broadcasting Award and the President of Indigo Productions Joe Romanowski will receive the President’s Award.
