2008 Beacon Awards
Cable’s Highest Award for Communications and Public Affairs Excellence
by Staff -- Multichannel News, 4/7/2008
The Beacon Awards recognize the best of the best in cable communications and public affairs. The Association of Cable Communicators (ACC) annually sponsors the Beacon Awards program as part of its mission to develop and promote cable communications excellence through professional development to help achieve industry and corporate goals.
The 2008 Beacon Award winning entries were submitted by cable operators, programming networks, cable associations and cable technology providers for communications and public affairs projects in categories such as community relations, integrated communications, and public service announcements.
Overseeing the 2008 Beacon Awards Committee were co-chairs Amy Cohn, executive director of public affairs for Cox Communications, and Ellen Kroner, senior vice president of corporate communications and marketing for Rainbow Media Holdings. This year, the Beacon Award committee added two new categories — programming publicity and cause marketing — to ensure that all campaigns cable communicators oversee have a home in the awards process.
The 2008 Beacon Award winning entries demonstrate the hard work, innovation and dedication of cable communicators across the nation. It is, in part, through cable communications and public affairs campaigns and volunteer efforts of cable employees that many local charities and nonprofit organizations nationwide receive the funds, materials and services needed to further their missions and help those in need.
The ACC Community Bridges Award recognizes outstanding, non-cable industry partner organizations taking part in cable communications initiatives, and this year will honor Habitat for Humanity. The cable industry and Habitat have partnered all across the country to eliminate poverty housing by raising awareness of the need for decent housing and by partnering on local projects to build affordable shelter.
In addition to helping Habitat provide decent housing to those in need, cable companies are working to keep children safe online, teaching adults to read and to speak English, and address health concerns such as heart disease in women, obesity, mental illness and autism. In local communities, cable employees have tutored children, renovated schools and parks, fed the hungry and provided warm coats to those without.
The efforts of this year’s three Golden Beacon Award finalists have encouraged pet rescue and adoption, improved the overall health and wellness of kids and expanded man’s knowledge of the natural world and its history.
Cable communications and public affairs campaigns are also instrumental in delivering cable’s messages and news about technological advances to their customers, promoting new services and programming and helping to grow the bottom line. In addition, these initiatives help students learn and view the world via cable’s high-speed Internet and an array of educational programming.
The magnitude of cable’s contribution toward improving the quality of life for viewers, customers and the communities it serves is very clear when one reviews a year’s worth of the best cable communications and public affairs practices.
In January 2008, 87 cable communicators did just that by judging the Beacon Award entries in an extensive, two-part process that spanned three days at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association headquarters in Washington, D.C. Panels of judges reviewed each submission and chose Beacon Award winners and finalists. The 72 Beacon Award winners of 2008 achieve peer, industry and local market recognition for their exemplary work and set a standard for their colleagues to emulate.
The 2008 Beacon Awards and Forum are just some of the ways ACC addresses the needs and interests of the cable industry’s communications and public affairs professionals.
ACC would like to thank Multichannel News for providing a special showcase for the 2008 Beacon Award winners and is truly grateful to those companies that support this year’s Multichannel News Beacon Awards supplement by paying tribute to the winners. ACC is proud to join with Multichannel News to congratulate the 2008 Beacon Award winners.
