DePauw News Archive

Two members inducted into Media Wall of Fame; C-SPAN chairman to speak

May 3, 1999

The chairman and CEO of C-SPAN, Brian P. Lamb, will give the keynote address when two members are added to the DePauw University Media Wall of Fame on Friday, May 7.

"Network News: Does It Matter Anymore?" will be the topic of Lamb's speech at 11 a.m. in East College, Meharry Hall. It is open and free to the public.

After organizing C-SPAN, the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, as a not-for-profit company, Lamb directed the building of one of Washington, D.C.'s first satellite uplinks in 1979 and delivered the first televised session of the U.S. House of Representatives to 3.5 million cable households. C-SPAN grew rapidly and now employs 230 people and offers two 24-hour video channels, C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2, plus two audio networks. More than 71 million households can now tune in the network's coverage of the U.S. Congress and public affairs programming.

Lamb will speak following the induction of Elizabeth J. Turnell, posthumously, and Robert H. Giles, a 1955 DePauw graduate, into the DePauw Media Wall of Fame. That will bring to 12 the number of media leaders named to the Wall of Fame since it was established in 1993.

Elizabeth Turnell is the first non-DePauw graduate inducted into the Wall of Fame, but she spent many years at the university. In 1949 Turnell left her mark on DePauw, and the nation, by helping to establish WGRE, the first Federal Communication Commission-licensed, 10-watt college FM radio station in the country. From 1944 until her retirement in 1972, Turnell was the broadcasting matriarch at DePauw, producing students who went on to successful careers in the broadcast, advertising and theater industries. She also established a pattern for volunteer student involvement in a full-service community radio station that continues today. It is appropriate that she is being recognized as WGRE celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding this year.

A native of Danville, Ill., Turnell majored in speech at the University of Illinois, where she was selected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated in 1923. She earned a master's degree in speech from the University of Illinois in 1931. She taught broadcasting and theater at Shorewood High school in Milwaukee and then joined Northwestern University, where she taught only six weeks before accepting a position at DePauw.

Robert Giles got his start in journalism when he edited copy and laid out pages for the university's student newspaper, The DePauw. In 1958 the Cleveland native joined the news staff at the Akron Beacon Journal, where he directed the Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Kent State shootings and became managing editor and then executive editor. Giles was named executive editor of the two Gannett newspapers in Rochester, N.Y., the Times-Union and Democrat & Chronicle, in 1977, and he was promoted to editor in 1980. After joining The Detroit News as executive editor in 1986, he became editor and publisher in 1989. In June 1997, Giles retired from The Detroit News and joined The Freedom Forum as a senior vice president and executive director of the Media Studies Center in New York City.

Giles received the Scripps-Howard Foundation Distinguished Journalism Citation in 1978 in recognition of his "outstanding public service in the cause of the First Amendment." Throughout his career, Giles has been an active leader in news industry organizations, including service as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors from 1996-97 and the Associated Press Managing Editors from 1987-88. DePauw awarded him an honorary Doctor of Journalism degree in 1996, and he currently serves on the External Board of Advisors for the university's Center for Contemporary Media.