October 1, 1999
LAWRENCE -- Longtime Wichita TV personality Larry Hatteberg will receive 1999 Grover Cobb Award for Broadcasting Service next week from the University of Kansas' William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
The award will be presented to Hatteberg, currently a news anchor on KAKE-TV, on Wednesday, Oct. 6 at the Manhattan Holiday Inn during the annual convention of the Kansas Association of Broadcasters.
The award recognizes long-term and continuous service in the field of broadcasting in the state of Kansas. It has been awarded annually by KU's broadcast journalism faculty since 1957. Previous recipients include Grover Cobb, Bob Wells, Bob Schmidt, Arden Booth, Mike Oatman, Jerry Holley, Pat Powers, Martin Umansky, Ed and Zorabelle Hundley, Bob Templeton and Tony Jewell.
Hatteberg has been in broadcasting for 36 years. His career began at KAKE in 1963 when he started as a part-time film lab technician. He has been a photographer, chief photographer, assistant news director, executive news director and is now managing editor of KAKE News and prime-time co-anchor of KAKE News At Five.
His television series "Hatteberg's People" is the longest running television feature in Kansas. Hatteberg also has written a best-selling book, "Larry Hatteberg's Kansas People," that profiles 75 Kansans who make the state a unique place to live. A sequel, "More Larry Hatteberg's Kansas People," features 85 Kansans.
Hatteberg has won numerous awards and honors. He was twice named the prestigious "National Press Photographers Television News Cameraman of the Year." He was a national semi-finalist for NASA's "Journalist-in-Space" program out of 1,800 applicants. In addition, Hatteberg has received more than 90 additional local, state, and national awards for television news photography, reporting and for helping to set broadcast journalism standards.
He grew up in Winfield, a small community south of Wichita. Hatteberg is a 1962 graduate of Winfield High School, and he attended Kansas State Teacher College in Emporia and Wichita State University while working full-time at KAKE-TV.
Contact: Todd Cohen, (785) 864-8858 or tcohen@ukans.edu.