KTHV, Channel 11 news anchor Craig O'Neill had wanted to be on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson since he was a boy eating tuna on white bread sandwiches. Though he has become a kind of Johnny Carson figure locally, he never got to that Tonight Show stage.
"And now you get on for chemistry?" O'Neill screeched, storming around the lectern and going after Kevin Delaney's throat with his O'Neill-size mitts outstretched.
It was all in good fun, and so was the annual Arkansas chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators awards lunch Nov. 18 at Heifer Village.
O'Neill was given the John K. Woodruff Award for Lifetime Achievement. Delaney, director of visitor experience at the Museum of Discovery, who has been on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon three times, got the Communicator of the Year award.
Delaney got a laugh when he introduced his wife, saying, "She's smarter than I am and better at communicating. It's weird that I got this award. My mother would like a phone call every now and then."
Last year's Woodruff Award winner was longtime newsman and columnist Ernie Dumas. Circuit Judge Chris Piazza was the Communicator honoree.
High Profile on 11/29/2015