It may only be 60 blocks from 110th St. in Harlem, where Janice Huff spent her earliest years, to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where Huff spends her days now. But she has come a long way, nonetheless.
Huff was among the honorees inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame today. She called it “the biggest moment of my life.” Huff was honored for her work which has taken her from Chattanooga (WTVC), to Columbus, GA (WRBL), to St. Louis (KSDK), to San Francisco (KRON) and, since 1995, as meteorologist at WNBC in New York.
After forecasting the weather in cities across the country, Huff said she really felt she arrived when she saw her face plastered on a New York City bus.
“I’ve spent 20 years with Chuck [Scarborough] and 19 1/2 years with Bruce [Beck],” Huff said, thanking her on-air news and sports colleagues, who were in attendance. She also gave a big thanks to someone who was not able to make it: Sue Simmons, longtime co-anchor of WNBC, who left the station in 2012. She also thanked her agents Richard Leibner and Carol Cooper “who have been with me since my St. Louis days.”
Things aren’t slowing down for Huff or WNBC. GM Eric Lerner tells TVSpy the station is launching a new graphics look with Saturday night’s 11 p.m. newscast, and on Monday debuts a 4 p.m. newscast, which will be anchored by Stefan Holt and Natalie Pasquarella. WNBC will be the second station in the No. 1 market, after WABC, to launch a 4 p.m. newscast.
Also honored at the event luncheon at the Conrad Hotel in New York City: WRGB (Albany) anchor Liz Bishop, MSNBC’s Chris Jansing, the New York Yankees broadcast team of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman, and WDOE (Dunkirk, NY) sports director Dan Palmer.