Foley to be Honored with Silver Circle Award for Broadcasting Career

By University Relations

Larry Foley

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Larry Foley, chair of the Lemke Department of Journalism at the University of Arkansas, is due to be inducted into the Silver Circle of the Mid-America chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He will be honored along with three other Arkansas broadcasters during an awards dinner Thursday, July 22, at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock.     

The Silver Circle was established to recognize individuals who have devoted a quarter of a century or more to the television industry, and who also have made meaningful and significant contributions to broadcasting.

“When I received the call that I was to be inducted into the Emmy Silver Circle, I was stunned, and for one of the few times in my life, speechless,” Foley said. “Being inducted along with my friend Carolyn Long and my mentor Jim Pitcock is special — beyond anything I could have ever dreamed up. When I started my career in television as a cub reporter in 1977, I was just hoping to hang on. Now, 40 years later, this happens. I'm honored, and humbled by this recognition, and still find it hard to believe.”

Foley, a University of Arkansas alumnus, began his broadcasting career at KUAF, what was then the U of A’s student-run station, the “10-watt wonder.” He graduated with a broadcast journalism degree before starting work for KATV in 1977, covering Southeast Arkansas as Pine Bluff Bureau chief and hosting Good Morning Arkansas. During his time at the Little Rock station he held nearly every position in the newsroom. He moved to the Arkansas Educational Television Network in 1984, eventually becoming deputy director, the network’s number two position. He joined the U of A faculty, teaching broadcast journalism and documentary filmmaking, in 1994. He founded the campus television station — UATV — inspired by his experience at KUAF.

“Just last fall, UATV celebrated its 20th anniversary,” Foley said. “A student media center is now under construction that will feature a new state-of-the-art newsroom, control room and TV studio that will open to a beautiful backdrop of campus.”

Foley is currently chair of the journalism department. His documentary films have earned seven Mid-America EMMY Awards, and 17 nominations in writing, journalistic enterprise history, cultural history and special program and community service.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.