Hall Of Fame

Jack Womack was born in Dillon in 1959.   He attended Helena High School and started his career in broadcasting at Helena’s KCAP AM and FM when he was 15 years old in 1974.  He graduated from HHS in 1977 and attended college at Montana State University and worked for a short time at KXXL Radio Bozeman.

Womack left college to become news director of KCAP radio in January of 1978.  Later that year he was named Operations Director KCAP AM-FM.  He then attended the University of Montana in the fall of 1978.  He anchored at IMN News and KTVG Helena in the summer of 1979.

In 1980 he returned to Bozeman to become the morning drive host on KBMN radio.  In 1983 Womack moved to Spokane and worked as an assignment editor/reporter and anchor at KXLY TV-AM-FM. In 1984 he graduated from Montana State University with a B-A in television and film production.

He moved to Atlanta in 1985 and worked as an editor at CNN’s national desk.  He has held a variety of jobs at CNN including Executive Producer CNN Newsource Live, Director Broadcast Affiliate Relations, substitute anchor for Headline News, VP editorial operations Headline News and Executive Vice President Headline News.

Womack’s current position is Senior Vice President Production and Operations CNN Worldwide, based at the company world headquarters in Atlanta. This is the largest group of employees at CNN.   This team includes all studio and field production, CNN Newsource the largest news syndication service in the world with broadcast, web, digital and newspaper affiliates around the world.   He is also responsible for CNN’s Special Events team, Business Administration, the CNN Library,  CNN Aerial Imagery and Reporting-  (CNN’s drone force), CNN Design for sets, studios, graphics and lighting and all employee technical training for the company.

For the past 4 years Womack and his teams have been working on a major new broadcast facility and New York Headquarters for CNN.    CNN will have studios, newsrooms, offices and full production from a building in a major new development of skyscrapers in New York called Hudson Yards.  CNN will start broadcasting from this over 300,000 square foot facility in June of 2019.

Jack and his wife Kathy live in Marietta, Georgia and are celebrating their 30^th anniversary on June 11^th.   They have 4 children, Carson, Kylie, Alexa and Wyatt.   Jack has a son Jeff Womack who started his career in Montana Broadcasting and was the 2011 MBA Montana Weathercaster of the year. Jeff is an on -air meteorologist at the Fox affiliate in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Jack Hyyppa is a native Montanan from Whitehall, who graduated from Butte High. He went on to earn undergraduate degrees from Montana State University and a graduate degree at Northern Illinois University, He returned to MSU in 1973 to join the faculty of the Film and Television Department where he taught television and film production. Jack retired from teaching in 2006 as a full professor having impacted the lives of thousands of students, many of whom went on to careers in television in Montana and beyond.

In 1984, inspired by a local group of mothers who wanted Sesame Street available for their children, Jack brought KUSM-TV, Montana's first public television station, on the air, serving as its manager for 22 years. The station began humbly and creatively, with assistance from KUED in Salt Lake City, and a donated, low-power transmitter from Montana broadcasting legend and Hall-of-Famer, Joe Sample. In the years that followed, Jack grew the small station,
raising support from the community, the university, and the Montana legislature. Its reach would eventually be extended through cable systems across the state and a number of translators.

In 1997, Jack was instrumental in forging a partnership between the state's two rival universities to form Montana Public Television. KUFM-TV went on the air, and in a virtually unprecedented show of cooperation, staff and producers at the University of Montana joined forces with the station at MSU to expand over-the-air public television into western Montana. In the subsequent years, that partnership grew to include stations in Billings, Great Falls and Kalispell.

Jack believed that locally produced, locally scheduled, educational, historical, and civic programming should be available to all Montanans. Today, MontanaPBS serves over 400 Montana communities, reaching over 80% of the state for free, and is available in nearly every Montana home.

Jack Hyyppa’s career established his place as the father of public broadcasting in Montana, a dedicated educator, and an influential leader of our industry.

Bob Hoene’s broadcast career started in 1971 as an instructor in the Radio and Television Department in the Journalism School at UM. Bob moonlighted as play-by-play announcer for the Griz on KGVO Radio while helping put the University radio station on the air. KUFM became Montana’s first public radio station and NPR affiliate.

Bob went to work in Helena for an ad agency and served as the executive director of the Montana Broadcasters Association from 1974 to 1997. Over the years the MBA Board of Directors was populated with future Hall of Fame inductees. This renowned group motivated and guided him through many successful years representing the broadcasters. Bob and his staff introduced sales education while rewarding high achievers with cash and recognition awards, devised the concept for a broadcast station directory, increased membership to record numbers, and hired a lobbyist, while improving communication and service.

Delivering on new ideas added expense; more income was needed. Bob developed a program with the Montana National Guard to fill unused broadcast time with paid messages, guaranteeing statewide coverage to non-commercial accounts and charging for the service. The idea blossomed in Montana and now every Broadcast Association in the nation uses the Non Commercial Sustaining Announcement Program, created by Bob, to help fund their organizations. Today the MBA and all State Broadcast Associations are comfortably subsidized by the NCSA program.

Meanwhile, Bob’s Advertising Agency, 5^th Avenue, grew to become the most prolific purchaser of electronic media in the State. It was his great privilege to work with and for the many members of the MBA.

Service was a theme in Shag Miller’s life; service to his community, to his industry and to his country. In 1942 he left the University of Montana and joined the Army Air Corp where he served in Italy and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Air Medal. Following his discharge he returned to UM and graduated with a degree in Journalism in 1947.

In 1961 Shag purchased KBOW-AM, Butte, and in 1972 he started KOPR-FM. In the mid-1960s he was instrumental in forming the Intermountain Network of Montana.

Shag served as President of the Chamber of Commerce, the Salvation Army, the Local Development Corporation, the Montana State Golf Association and on the Board of Directors of the Montana Power Company.

In addition to serving as the President of the Montana Broadcasters Association, Shag served on the CBS Radio Affiliates Board and the National AP Radio Board. He served on the UM Foundation Board and was recognized in 1996 as a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Montana.