Richard Wiley, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be honored by the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) in recognition of his contributions to broadcasting in North America and around the world.
Wiley will be presented with the association’s International Achievement Award at NABA’s annual meeting Feb. 22-24 in Los Angeles.
Wiley, the senior partner in Washington, D.C., -based Wiley, Rein and Fielding, is being recognized by NABA for the important role he played as Chairman of the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service (ACATS) in the establishment of the digital and high-definition television transmission standard that was adopted by the FCC in 1995.
“Dick Wiley’s commitment and contributions to broadcasting are far reaching,” said NABA secretary general Michael McEwen. “The emergence of digital high-definition television in North America and internationally is a result, in large measure, to Dick’s exemplary skills as a visionary, diplomat, and negotiator.”
In 1987 Wiley as Chairman of the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service (ACTAS) led a committee of 25 leading executives and more than 450 scientists and engineers from 25 private sector organizations in devising and testing the ATSC digital TV and HDTV terrestrial television transmission system.
“It was Dick Wiley,” recalled Joe Flaherty of CBS and a NABA board member, “who welded this rag-tag battalion into a goal-oriented Committee and led it into the digital and HDTV world of the 21st century.”
“If a new age of digital television and high definition has indeed been born, Wiley is its father,” he noted.
The NABA International Achievement Award is presented annually and recognizes leaders in broadcasting who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to NABA’s goals and principles.
For more information, please visit: www.nabanet.com.