Television HOF

Harold “Hod” Grams – 2007

Harold “Hod” Grams came to St. Louis after working at a couple Iowa radio stations. His first job here was at KSD radio in 1938.as an announcer, becoming program director in 1943. In 1947 he was named to the same position at the market’s first television station, co-owned KSD-TV. After 10 years, Grams was promoted to general manager of the radio and TV stations. Ten years after that he became vice president in charge of all Pulitzer radio and television stations. He was also active in the NBC affiliates’ group, and was elected chairman of their board of delegates. Grams retired from broadcasting in 1979.

George Burbach – 2006

Burbach started out as ad manager for the Post-Dispatch and in 1922, moved to KSD radio as general manager. While on vacation in London in 1936 he was the first person from St. Louis to see television in its early form. He is said to have vowed that his company would be the first to broadcast television in the US, and was ready to do so in 1941 when WWII halted all development. He became KSD-TV GM when it signed on in 1947 and remained there until his death in early ‘60s.

Charles Guggenheim – 2006

Charles Guggenheim was the first general manager of St. Louis public television station KETC in 1953. A television producer and director, Guggenheim got his training at CBS in New York. By 1954 he had founded his own small film production studio in St. Louis. The company’s first feature film, “The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery,” helped launch the career of actor Steve McQueen. In the early 1960s, Guggenheim went on to form a partnership with TV and documentary film producer Shelby Storck for several documentaries which were nominated for and/or won Academy Awards. Guggenheim received his first Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject for 1964’s “Nine from Little Rock.” He received 12 Oscar nominations in total, and also won subsequent Oscars for “Robert Kennedy Remembered” (1968), “The Johnstown Flood” (1989) and “A Time for Justice” (1995).

Fred Burrows – 2008

Fred Burrows grew up in St. Louis and didn’t always plan to be in the news business. He originally attended Washington University in St. Louis with intentions of pursuing a career in engineering. To help pay his way through school, he got a job at KWK-TV (KMOX-TV) Channel 4. He did a stint at KPLR before returning to KMOX in 1960. While there, he directed the first live regional broadcast and the station was one of the first to transition from news film to electronic news gathering. After leaving KMOX-TV in 1986, Fred went to CNN where he devised what are now industry standards: generic line shots, archival services and affiliate seminars. While at CNN, he also produced and managed such events as the first national convention coverage for CNN’s affiliates, the terrorist attacks of September 11 and Hurricane Katrina.

Harry Caray – 2006

​Harry Caray (Carabina) hit town in 1944 as an announcer at the St. Louis Star radio station, KXOK. While his strength was in sports broadcasting, which he put to good use that year doing play-by-play for the Cardinals/Browns World Series, he was a jack-of-all-trades back at the station. Caray would write his own copy, conduct news interviews, and write and present editorials on the station, and he had a regular sports talk program as well.
It was said he sought a job at KMOX in 1943 by sending a personal letter to the home of the station’s general manager, Merle Jones, who granted him an interview and then told him to get some experience and come back.
He did his first game as a Cardinals’ announcer April 17, 1945. Years later, in 1955, Caray would be teamed in the Cardinals’ broadcast booth with Jack Buck and Joe Garagiola, and the three were heard throughout the Midwest over the vast Cardinals’ radio network.
Harry Caray’s colorful announcing and antics endeared him to radio fans, whom Caray felt were the people to whom he was responsible. When players became perturbed at his description of their work, Caray swore he was telling it the way he saw it.
After 25 years in the St. Louis broadcast booth, Harry Caray was given his walking papers by his employer, Anheuser-Busch.

Allan Cohen – 2008

KMOV president and general manager Allan Cohen distinguished himself as a strong leader in the field of television broadcasting and as an extraordinary individual committed to helping the community in which he lived and worked. Under his direction, KMOV achieved a well-deserved, national reputation as one of the top-rated and most watched television stations in the country. During Cohen’s tenure at the helm, KMOV received numerous awards and honors for outstanding programming, excellent reporting and its commitment to community involvement, including the National Association of Broadcasting Education Foundation’s Service to America – Service to Children award in 2001 and 2004, and a 2003 Gerald R. Loeb Award.