WFUV-FM (90.7), Fordham University’s non-commercial radio station, raised $700,000 at its first Spring Gala on Tuesday, April 29 at Sotheby’s auction house in New York City.
The station honored recording artist Emmylou Harris as well as CBS journalist Charles Osgood (FCRH ’54) and voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers Vin Scully (FCRH ’49), who both started their careers at WFUV (www.wfuv.org).
The event was emceed by ABC News anchor and correspondent Elizabeth Vargas. Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme, CBS Sunday Morning anchor Bill Geist and former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca presented lifetime achievement awards to the honorees. Harris performed a set of songs, including a cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” drawing a standing ovation from the 400 guests, including Les Paul, Joan Osborne and Phoebe Snow. Sotheby’s auctioneer C. Hugh Hildesley led a live auction. The event was co-chaired by Henry Barkhorn, John A. Herrmann and Lisa Shalett.
At a press conference before the ceremony, Scully said that his award was even more meaningful than the honorary degree he received from Fordham in 2000, even if, he noted dryly, his life is not over just yet.
“Lifetime achievement is pretty heady stuff. It seems like the wolves are getting close to the campfire,” he said chuckling.
Harris, whose six-song acoustic set served as a sort of warm up to her upcoming national tour, called WFUV the archetype of stations that play music by her, Snow and other artists “that are kind of out in left field.” So close is her relationship to the station, Harris said she could not pick just one appearance or performance at WFUV as her favorite.
“It’s all kind of a blur, after all the performances and all the years of touring, but I just know when they say, ‘Hey, they want you to come play the WFUV thing,’ of course I’m going to go out there and play it because they played me so much,” she said. “I’m happy to give back whatever I can.”
To download hi-resolution photographs of honorees and guests at the event, please visit:http://www.wfuv.org/press.
WFUV is one of the nation’s most influential public radio organizations, with state-of-the-art broadcast facilities and a world-class training program for university students. Attracting one of the largest audiences among public radio stations in its format, WFUV is a destination of choice for listeners to discover new and significant artists.
WFUV is a non-commercial, listener-supported public radio station, licensed to Fordham University for 60 years. Serving nearly 350,000 listeners each week in the New York area and thousands more worldwide on the Internet, and a leader in contemporary music radio, WFUV offers an eclectic mix of rock, singer-songwriters, blues, world and other music, plus headlines from National Public Radio, local news and sports.
