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Broadcasters Hall announces '11 class

Cosmic Cowboy Shane Gibson will be joining WIVB-TV Channel 4 news anchor Jacquie Walker and the late radio newsman Jim McLaughlin in the 2011 Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame, it was announced Wednesday.

Walker, who will mark her 28th year at Channel 4 on Oct. 3, anchors evening newscasts at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11. She won two national Edward R. Murrow awards for coverage of the crash of Continental Flight 3407. Her tenure is a milestone for women in local television anchoring.

“There is no other woman who has been able to stay an anchor at a same station for that long,” Walker said. “It’s a difficult and demanding business.

“When I began here after working in Rochester for four years, we had a 6 and 11 o’clock newscast,” she added. “Now, I have two Facebook pages and a Twitter account, so viewers are constantly interacting with us. That has changed the way we deliver news, and in some ways, it isn’t necessarily better because instant news is not complete news.”

Also joining the Class of 2011 will be Channel 4 news producer Vic Baker, former WGRZ-TV Channel 2 sales manager Don Angelo and former WKBW-AM 1520 DJ Dick Biondi.

WUFO-AM 1080, Western New York’s first radio station programming to the African- American community, also will be celebrated for 50 years of broadcasting.

“Shane Brother Shane” Gibson launched his radio career in Buffalo after finishing second in the “Great American Talent Hunt” on WKBW in 1973. Several months later he started at the radio station, working nights. He moved in 1974 to WYSL-AM 1400, and served two stints as program director at WGR-AM 550 before leaving for good in 1989. Gibson joined the Professional Golf Association in 2002, and now is a golf instructor in Richmond, Va.

McLaughlin, an Army veteran, worked in Buffalo as the news director of WYSL in the late 1960s before starting at WKBW, where he worked from 1970 to 1978. During the Attica prison riots of 1971, he provided coverage from inside the prison.

In 1979 while working on WBEN-AM 930’s “Newsday,” McLaughlin won the New York State Associated Press Award for best radio news program. He retired for health reasons in 1987 and died in November 1993 at age 59.

Through 50 years of radio, Biondi worked for at least 15 stations in several markets, starting in the early ’50s at WCBA-AM 1350 in Corning.

Known by many as the “Wild Italian,” Biondi had a legendary temper. He lasted at WKBW for two years — 1958 and 1959—before he was fired.

Erie County wins lawsuit against NYS | WIVB.com

BUFFALO, N.Y. (RELEASE) - Erie County will collect approximately $3.5 million from the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) after successfully suing the state for ending reimbursement to counties for Medicaid services for certain mentally disabled recipients. Along with three other counties, Erie County sued the NYSDOH in 2006 after the state stopped fully reimbursing county governments for these services. New York State's highest court recently refused to hear NYSDOH's appeal on the matter, triggering the monetary award.

Technically known as Medicaid overburden claims, Erie County argued its taxpayers were paying for Medicaid services that should be reimbursed by the NYSDOH according to state and federal Medicaid regulations. The $3.5 million award represents the amount of local taxpayer money that was never reimbursed by the NYSDOH.

"Medicaid is the number one monetary issue facing Erie County taxpayers," said Erie County Executive Chris Collins. "New York State takes nearly every dime Erie County collects in property taxes to pay for its Medicaid program. Erie County will continue to hold the state accountable for how it operates this program to be sure we are being properly reimbursed for services we do not believe we should be paying for in the first place. The leadership of the Department of Social Services is to be commended for their insight and determination leading to this settlement."

"New York State's Medicaid program continues to be the most generous and most expensive in the entire United States," continued Collins. "While I am pleased with the outcome of this litigation, the $3.5 million award will be gobbled right back up by New York State as Erie County's mandated Medicaid contribution grows by approximately $6 million a year."

Per an agreement when the lawsuit was filed in 2006, the lawyer representing Erie County will receive a percentage of the award as the fee for her service.

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