Friday, December 18, 2009

2010 AMEE Award Honorees


Flash! National December 2009

AFTRA Foundation to Honor Legends at 2010 AMEE Awards in New York
The AFTRA Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2010 AFTRA Media and Entertainment Excellence Awards (The AMEES). Receiving honors will be Spanish-language recording artist Juanes, broadcast journalist Robin Roberts and the past and present cast members of “Sesame Street.” Broadcast veteran Charles Osgood and music legend Sam Moore will be honored with AMEE Lifetime Achievement Awards for their decades of excellence in their respective fields.
Robin Roberts – AMEE Award in Broadcasting

As an anchor of ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” Roberts has reported on a diverse range of stories and issues, from anchoring presidential candidate town halls to reporting on natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

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The Cast of ‘Sesame Street’ – AMEE Award in Entertainment

Celebrating its 40th year on the air, "Sesame Street" has taught countless children their ABCs and 123s. Airing in more than 140 nations, the show has become one of the single greatest informal educators of young children in the world with its cast of Muppets, actors and guest stars.

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Juanes – AMEE Award in Sound Recordings

Hailed by Billboard magazine in December 2009 as the “Star of the Decade,” Colombian international superstar Juanes is the top-selling Latin rock artist in the world and the genre’s leading social activist. Juanes’ multi-platinum breakthrough album, “Un Dia Normal,” set the record for the longest Top 10 chart run in Latin music history at the time of its release and its follow-up, “Mi Sangre,” likewise notched an astounding two-year chart run, while bringing Juanes to No. 1 throughout Latin America, the U.S. and across Europe.

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Charles Osgood – AMEE Lifetime Achievement Award in Broadcasting

With his trademark bow-tie and his weekly TV signoff of “I’ll see you on the radio,” Charles Osgood has often been referred to as CBS News’ poet-in-residence. Osgood has been anchor for CBS News Sunday Morning since 1994 and also anchors and writes “The Osgood File,” his daily news commentary on the CBS Radio Network.

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Sam Moore – AMEE Lifetime Achievement Award in Sound Recordings

For years, Sam Moore was best known for his work with the historic soul duo Sam & Dave. The rapid-fire style, built on the call and response of gospel, was fashioned and pioneered by Moore and became the trademark of the duo. Songs like “Hold On I’m Coming,” “I Thank You,” “When Something is Wrong with My Baby” and the monster hit “Soul Man” catapulted Sam & Dave up both the Pop and R&B charts, selling more than 10 million records worldwide in the process.

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AFTRA National First Vice President and award-winning broadcast journalist, Bob Edwards, will serve as Master of Ceremonies at the 2010 AMEES. Edwards is the host of “The Bob Edwards Show” on XM Satellite Radio. Before joining XM in 2004, he hosted National Public Radio’s (NPR) “Morning Edition” for more than 24 years. Edwards was inducted in the national Radio Hall of Fame in 2004 and is a past AMEE Award recipient.

The honorees will receive their awards at the AMEES dinner gala benefit at the Plaza Hotel in New York on Feb. 22, 2010.

“The diversity and caliber of our 2010 AMEE honorees is breathtaking. The AFTRA Foundation is proud to honor these talented and dedicated AFTRA members, each of whom has made enormous contributions to the fields of entertainment and news media,” said Shelby Scott, AFTRA Foundation President and former AFTRA National President. “Together, they represent the vast spectrum of media in which AFTRA members work and the long tradition of excellence in scripted programming, sound recordings and quality news journalism that is the very hallmark of AFTRA talent.”

Past AMEE recipients include the late "60 Minutes" producer Don Hewitt and his team of CBS on-air journalists including the late Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Dan Rather, Andy Rooney, Morley Safer, Bob Simon, Lesley Stahl and Mike Wallace. Other past honorees include Smokey Robinson, Jeanne Cooper, Vin Scully, Don LaFontaine, Cedric The Entertainer, Willard Scott, Roberta Flack, Bob Edwards, Don Hastings, Susan Flannery, Amber Tamblyn, Patti Austin, Robert Hager, Sam Donaldson, Susan Lucci and vocalist Maureen McGovern.

The AMEES were created in 2003 to honor AFTRA members for excellence in their craft and their contributions to the fields of media and entertainment. Proceeds from the 2009 AMEE Awards go to benefit the AFTRA Foundation, an independent non-profit organization separate from AFTRA that provides support to charitable and educational endeavors critical to AFTRA members, including the George Heller Memorial Scholarship which provides scholarships to AFTRA members and their dependents for academic study and the International News Safety Institute, the only global organization solely dedicated to the safety of journalists and other news professionals.

For more information about the 2010 AMEE Awards, including sponsorships and tickets to the event, please visit http://www.aftra.com/amees2010.html.

About the AFTRA Foundation
Founded by the AFTRA National Board of Directors in 1997 as a separate legal entity from the union, the AFTRA Foundation is a charitable and educational organization funded through tax-deductible voluntary contributions, grants and bequests—not AFTRA member dues—to support projects outside the scope of normal activities at AFTRA, including charitable endeavors, special conferences, studies, seminars and other events. For more information, visit http://www.aftra.com/foundation.htm.

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