The Voice of Emporia got his flowers Sunday night.
The Kansas Association of Broadcasters honored KVOE General Manager and Morning Show host Ron Thomas in this year’s Hall of Fame induction class.
A Montana native, Thomas got interested in radio as a career when his family moved to Saskatchewan, Canada.
Thomas spent time as a broadcaster in Wyoming, South Dakota and Iowa — and was lined up for a Wisconsin job when that fell through. His next stop was Emporia in 1986 as program director and news reporter. He has been hosting the Morning Show for decades and has served as general manager since 2011. KVOE has claimed numerous awards with Thomas at the helm, including the National Association of Broadcasters Crystal Award for community service — an award that symbolizes the station approach.
Thomas is also well-known for his own community engagement, including his now-annual Ron’s Ride, which has generated more than $50,000 for Special Olympics.
Thomas was inducted alongside Topeka’s Roger Brokke and Colby’s Rich Epp.
During the awards competition earlier this year, KVOE received first-place honors for medium-market sports play-by-play with its Emporia State football broadcast crew, Blake Cripps, Kent Wieser and Tagan Trahoon. KVOE also got second place in spot news for Trahoon and Dylan Sherwood’s coverage of the fatal home explosion in east Emporia in June, as well as second in special programming for Trahoon’s Feel Good Friday segment on Radioplomacy. KVOE News got an honorable mention in multimedia storytelling for its coverage of flooding in June.
Photos by Chuck Samples/KVOE News
