Indiana Broadcast Pioneers Richard M. Fairbanks Hall of Fame

Each year, the Indiana Broadcasters Association inducts a new class of broadcasters into the Indiana Broadcast Pioneers Richard M. Fairbanks Hall of Fame.  Honorees represent the highest level of professional broadcasting in Indiana and are recognized each fall during the annual Indiana Broadcasters Association “Best in Broadcasting” Spectrum Awards ceremony.

Nominations are now closed for 2021.  The Indiana Broadcast Pioneers will begin accepting nominations for the 2022 class on Monday, January 3, 2022.

The 2021 class will be inducted October 27, 2021 during a luncheon ceremony at the annual Indiana Broadcasters Conference at the 502 East Event Centre in Carmel at Noon ET.

Honorees represent the highest level of professional broadcasting in Indiana and are inducted each fall during the annual Indiana Broadcasters Association “Best in Broadcasting” Spectrum Awards ceremony.

Class of 2021

Jill Ditmire

Jill Ditmire graced the airwaves of stations across the Midwest for more than 25 years, most recently on WFYI on Indianapolis as a local news anchor on afternoons during All Things Considered as well as reporting for Sound Medicine, Curious Mix, and Art of the Matter.  Jill’s career includes stops in Detroit and Lafayette as well as several Indianapolis TV stations. She produced her own television series on Indiana Public Television for eight years called “The Good Life” which showcased independent chefs, restaurants, and local wineries.  Jill was an Omnimedia Wine Specialist, an Certified Wine Judge, and owner/buyer of The Mass Ave Wine Shoppe & Cafe in Indianapolis.

Delores Poindexter

When Delores Poindexter started her radio career in 1970, she was one of only a few women on the air in Indianapolis at the time.  She started as a DJ on Sunday mornings on WTLC and entertained with her personality and knowledge of the community and gospel music.  When the legendary Rev. Mozel Sanders passed away in 1988, Poindexter took over WTLC’s weekday early morning gospel music program that became a top ranked program in the market.  She was the first African American woman licensed Disc Jockey to have a national radio program on WTLC Radio and the first African American woman to have a number one rated show for 15 years. She also was the first woman to host her radio show inside the prisons and jails throughout the city and state. Poindexter was a pioneer in gospel music and a world-renowned singer, singing with the greats of gospel music. 

Mike Blake

Mike Blake is now in his 51^st year at WFIE-TV in Evansville.  After graduating with a master’s degree in radio, television, and film from the university of Iowa in 1968, he entered the U.S. Army.  He served two years, including the final 11 months on with the Armed Forces Vietnam network.  In September 1970, he began a remarkable career in the Evansville market, starting out as a weekday weatherman and weekend sportscaster.  In more than 40 years of sports reporting, Blake has received Associated Press awards for both sports and news work. Over the following decades, he co-anchored the first 5:00PM newscast in Evansville, helped to launch the first Friday night high school football and basketball shows, and continues to host the popular news and community service-oriented show “Midday with Mike.”  He has been elected to five sports halls of fame, including those saluting excellence in Indiana football and basketball.

Steve Sweitzer

Steve Sweitzer is the owner and operator of Sweitzer Productions, which provides video and still photography, editing, writing, reporting and field producing services. His clients include 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News & The Letterman Show. He is also Chief Photographer and a reporter/producer for Pet Pals TV and Great Day TV with Patty Spitler – where he reports a regular segment called Steve’s Tech Talk. Steve has more than 40 years of broadcast TV news experience, mostly at WISH-TV in Indianapolis; as Chief Photographer and News Operations Manager. Among his numerous awards, he has been Indiana News Photographer of the Year and received first place in the Associated Press reporting category.  For more than twenty years, Steve has taught courses at Indiana University Purdue University (IUPUI) where he received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, their highest honor for an adjunct professor.

Derrik Thomas

Derrik Thomas spent more than 40 years as a versatile general assignment reporter for WRTV in Indianapolis. He was the station’s third African American on-air reporter.  Widely praised for his incisive and lively writing style, Thomas produced thousands of stories on all subjects and events. He was particularly notable for his coverage of the courts and criminal trials, and feature stories emanating from the Indianapolis inner city community. His stories also generated first place awards from Associated Press, United Press International, Sigma Delta Chi, and Society of Professional Journalists, and lifetime achievement recognition from journalist organizations like the Indiana Association of Black Journalists, for a career that spanned 43 years.  His career began with stints at WMT-TV in Cedar Rapids, IA and KSMP-TV in Minneapolis. The Chicago-born and raised Thomas earned a degree in English from MacMurray College and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of lowa.

Dick Wolfsie

Dick Wolfsie left teaching in 1979 to host television talk shows in Columbus, OH; Boston, and Chicago, then on Good Morning New York on WABC-TV. He moved from New York to Indianapolis in 1982 to cohost WISH-TV’s Indianapolis Afternoon. In 1986 he created, produced and hosted a morning talk show on WTHR-TV from Union Station in Indianapolis.  In 1990 he returned to WISH-TV as a feature reporter on Daybreak until 2020.  His work in Central Indiana has resulted in dozens of honors including a Casper Award and two Emmys. Many of his video essays have been broadcast nationally. Dick Wolfsie is also a freelance writer and public speaker. He has authored 14 books and he currently writes a weekly humor column syndicated in 30 newspapers. He retired from WISH-TV in March of 2020, after 40 years on air in Indianapolis.

Hall of Fame Inductees

P…

Joe Pate
Jane Pauley
William “Don” Payne
Robert M. Petranoff
Prof. James R. Phillippe
Joe Piggott
Martin Plascak
Cole Porter
Rita Price-Simpson
Madelyn Pugh-Davis

R…

Wanda Ramey
Jack Rinehart
Ed Roehling
Henry Rosenthal
Bob Ross
Kneale D. Ross
Anne Ryder

S…

Chris Schenkel
Franklin D. Schurz
Frank Sharp
Herb Shriner
Robert Sievers
Jim Shelton
Bill Shirk
Sam Simmermaker
Red Skelton
Gene Slaymaker
Dave Smith
E. Berry Smith
Jeff Smulyan
Ken Speck
Dean Spencer
Lester Spencer
Patty Spitler
Ed Spray
Terri Stacy
Steve Starnes
Betty Chadwick Sullivan
Elmer G. Sulzer

T…

Sarkes Tarzian
Don Tillman
Elizabeth Turnell
Lurene Tuttle

V…

Carl Vandagrift
Harry Von Zell

W…

Luke Walton
Vicki Weger
Glenn Webber
Darrell Wible
Martin Williams
Jim Wilson
Hilda C. Woehrmeyer
Lew Wood
Stan Wood
Chuck Workman
Lloyd Wright

Y…

Richard Yoakam