The Buffalo Broadcasters Association has announced the inductees for the 14th annual Buffalo Broadcasting Hall of Fame. This year, the honorees include two people still actively working in local media.

One of these well-known figures is Brian Meyer, a Buffalo News reporter and a former reporter for WBEN-AM. The other is WGRZ-TV sports director Ed Kilgore.

As anchor, host and photographer, Kilgore has become practically family to generations of local sports fans. An athlete himself, he recently returned from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, as a fundraiser for Kids Escaping Drugs.

Meyer's work in broadcasting has also had a far-reaching impact, said Steve Reszka of Reszka and Associates, a member of the Broadcasters Association's board of directors.

"Brian is a broadcasting legend," Reszka says. "There was nobody in this town, in radio, who covered news like Brian did. Any major story, he was there. ... The number of people who interned with him is amazing."

Meyer, Kilgore and the other nominees will be inducted in a ceremony to be held Sept. 21 at the studios of WNED-TV.

Other honorees are:

• Les Trent, "Inside Edition" correspondent and Buffalo trailblazer. Trent began his career here, first on Channel 2 and then on Channel 4. "He belonged to the first African-American anchor team in Western New York," Reszka points out. "He and Beverly Armstrong. He's a good guy, with a lot of talent."
• Bill Siemering of NPR. "He created NPR," Reszka says. Formerly program director for WBFO-FM, Siemering moved to Washington, D.C., to become NPR's first program director.
• Mary Brady and Margaret Russ-Guenther, former administrators for WEBR-AM. "The legend is they pretty much ran WEBR," Reszka says. Brady and Russ-Guenther were both hired by WEBR in the 1940s, when the station was owned by the Buffalo Courier-Express. Though retired, both remain active in radio, assisting with WNED fund drives.
• The late Frank Benny, of WGR-AM, WYRK-FM and WBEN-AM. "He was a legend in terms of disc jockey," says Reszka, who himself interned with Benny in the late 1970s. "Frank was one of the smoothest announcers you could ever imagine." Benny went from radio to TV, becoming WGR-TV's weatherman for the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts and hosting the show "Bowling for Dollars."

Also at the induction ceremony, the Tim Russert Medal of Merit will be awarded to Amanda Ciavarri, a graduate of St. Bonaventure University. Ciavarri will receive a $1,000 scholarship from Time Warner Cable and the Buffalo Broadcasters Association.

The Sept. 21 ceremony begins at 7 p.m., preceded by cocktails and dinner at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 for members and $50 for nonmembers and are available in advance by calling 873-2233.

mkunz@buffnews.comnull