Oprah lauded at NAB for lifetime achievement

Kirk Baird

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 | 8:48 a.m.

For more than three decades Oprah Winfrey has been a part of television.

She's also found tremendous success in television, from her early anchoring days in the 1970s to her expanding broadcast empire that includes her own No. 1-rated syndicated talk show, "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) honored Winfrey's success Monday morning with its distinguished service award. The NAB is holding its annual convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center through Thursday.

"She is an extraordinary woman" who has made "significant and lasting contributions to broadcasting," NAB Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Edward Fritts said. "She connects people to their wider world. She's truly an ambassador to the world."

While Winfrey's ambassadorship stems from television, it wasn't until she was 6 years old that her family bought its first TV. And even then, she said her only television black role model was Buckwheat from "The Little Rascals."

"And nobody wanted to be Buck," she joked.

Four years later, however, Winfrey had a new role model.

"When I was 10 years old, I watched Sidney Poitier receiving an Academy Award, and I thought, 'If a colored man can do that, I wonder what I can do?' "

Winfrey said years later she interviewed Poitier and now counts him as a friend. It was her first "full-circle" moment.

Upon receiving the distinguished service award she said, "This, too, is a full-circle moment."

Winfrey's first job was in radio in Nashville. At 19 she became the youngest person and first black woman to anchor the news at a TV station in Nashville. She later moved to Baltimore and co-anchored the news before co-hosting "People Are Talking," a local talk show.

In 1984 Winfrey moved to Chicago to host the morning talk show "A.M. Chicago." The show proved so popular that less than a year later it was expanded to an hour and renamed "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Two years later and the show was syndicated, where it has remained the No. 1 talk show in the nation for 17 consecutive years. Other Winfrey business ventures include publishing, producing films and co-founding the Oxygen cable network.

Mixing self-deprecating humor with a poignant humility in her acceptance speech, Winfrey dedicated the award to all those who helped her achieve her success, from former newscast producers to her grandmother who encouraged her to "always pray."

"I feel I'm one of the most (fortunate) people on Earth to get paid as much as I do to just be myself. This life I'm living is bigger and more spectacular than any dream you can imagine," she said. "I accept this honor (for) the many contributors who put me here in this place."

Closing her speech, Winfrey said she lives by a code from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service."

She said the distinguished service award was an "affirmation" of how she uses that code of conduct through her show.

"My goal is to be great through service, to provide service through the show. We intend to uplift, enlighten and encourage, as well as entertain," she said. "This (award) is not just an honor but an affirmation that I'm on the right road, the right track.

"I believe I will run on to see what the end will be."