Hall of Fame Welcomes Seven New Members

The Omaha Press Club Journalists of Excellence Hall of Fame welcomed seven new members on Sept. 9. Since 2008, the Omaha Press club has been honoring the most notable area journalists from both the past and present.

The newest inductees include:

• Wally Dean – WOW, WOWT, CBS News, PEJ, CCJ
• Ronald N. Kaplan – SKAR (Smith Kaplan Allen & Reynolds Advertising Agency) (posthumous)
• Edward L. “Buddy” King — Freedom Broadcasting Network, KOWH AM/FM, KMTV Channel 3
• Todd Lemke – Omaha Magazine, Omaha Home, B2B Magazine
• Hugh J. Reilly – Omaha World-Herald, Boys Town, University of Nebraska at Omaha
• Robert T. Reilly – Creighton University, Holland Drives Reilly, University of Nebraska at Omaha (posthumous)
• Sue Baggarly Seline – WOWT-TV, Boomer Radio Network

Wally Dean, WOW, WOWT, CBS News, PEJ, CCJ

Wally Dean began a 30-year broadcasting career reading the morning announcements over the intercom at Westside High School and working part-time at KBON news-talk radio. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he worked summers as a newscaster at KLIN (Lincoln) and WOW radio before graduating in 1971 as a member of the Innocents Society senior honorary. 

Dean joined WOWT as a reporter/photographer and covered the Rapid City, South Dakota floods, the American Indian Movement’s occupation of Wounded Knee, and several presidential primary campaigns. He was anchor of the 6 p.m. news during the 1975 Omaha tornado and later co-anchored the 6 and 10 p.m. news with Gary Kerr before becoming Associate News Director and serving as Omaha Press Club president. 

In 1985, he joined the Washington Bureau of CBS News and was news assignment manager for a decade — followed by stints as associate director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, senior associate at the Project for Excellence in Journalism, training director of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, and director of the University of Missouri Journalism School’s Summer Washington Program. His academic work includes co-authoring the definitive analysis of U-S television news (“We Interrupt this Newscast,” 2007, Cambridge University Press), compiling the journalism tools and approaches section of the American Press Institute website and being a founding advisor at Ad Fontes Media, publisher of the non-partisan Media Bias Chart. 

Dean has conducted hundreds of seminars for mid-career journalists in the U.S., Europe, and Middle East. He was senior advisor to the Information Service for the Humanitarian Emergency in Gaza in 2014 and for several years has been a visiting professor at Nova and Lusofona universities in Lisbon, Portugal.

Ronald N. Kaplan, SKAR (Smith Kaplan Allen & Reynolds Advertising Agency) (posthumous)

In 1961, returning to his hometown of Omaha after serving in the Navy during the Korean War, Kaplan joined the family business, Blue Star Foods, in the marketing department. They were clients of a local advertising agency and Kaplan’s innate creativity flourished. He was invited to join the agency as an account executive, and two years later, he became part owner of Smith Kaplan Advertising Agency.

The agency grew rapidly, expanding to become Smith Kaplan Allen & Reynolds (SKAR), one of the largest ad agencies in the Midwest. Their clients included Commercial Federal Savings and Loan, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brandeis Department Store, Sue Bee Honey, East Texas Medical Center, and Kentucky Fried Chicken Regional Group, for which Kaplan won a National Advertising Award. 

During his 40-year career, Kaplan won numerous local and national advertising awards, including the prestigious Silver Medal Award from the National American Federation of Advertising. 

He also offered his time and talents to a number of community nonprofit organizations in which he most often assumed leadership roles. Listing them all would take another long paragraph! He also enjoyed mentoring SKAR’s young employees. When he retired in 2000, SKAR had grown to 45 employees with an exemplary reputation.

Kaplan passed away in 2021 at the age of 89 — still with his same infectious zest for life — having lived it to the fullest in a myriad of meaningful ways with heartfelt caring, passion, and integrity, both personally and professionally.

Edward L. “Buddy” King, Freedom Broadcasting Network, KOWH AM/FM, KMTV Channel 3

Edward “Buddy” King is the retired president of the Freedom Broadcasting Network LLC of Carmel, California and the Freedom Satellite Network of the United States, Dutch, and British West Indies. 

King played a significant part of Omaha’s broadcast history, serving as a staff announcer, newscaster, weatherman, and reporter for KMTV Channel 3, then a May Broadcasting Company (a NBC-TV affiliate) in the 1970s. 

He produced and hosted his own monthly television variety show, “Black on Black,” at 6:30 p.m. on Friday evenings for three years. The program won a minority programming award and Sen. Edward Zorinsky proclaimed June 29 “Black on Black Day” in the city of Omaha.

King also periodically hosted three other critically acclaimed minority programs: “Come Together,” “Hiring Line,” and “Expressions.”

He also served as operations manager and morning announcer for Reconciliation Broadcast Inc. (KOWH AM and FM), Omaha’s first black-owned radio stations.

He later went on to have a very successful career in the music business, working as National Director of Marketing and Promotion of the Custom Labels division of the former Stax Record Company of Memphis, Tennessee. 

In 1987, King — along with his late wife, Beatrice, and three sons — started the Freedom Broadcasting Network. 

Todd Lemke, Omaha Magazine, Omaha Home, B2B Magazine

With 40 years of experience in the industry, Todd Lemke has launched multiple publications, including the award-winning flagship, Omaha Magazine. Lemke says “It is an honor to be a part of the fabric of our community.” He has been a part of bringing stories of Omaha’s most fascinating people and interesting places to readers through Omaha Magazine. The regional lifestyle magazine reaches a paid/requested readership of over 180,000 people through both print and online platforms.

Currently, Lemke custom publishes over 20 local publications and one national publication. Lemke and his wife, Sandy, also own, host, and publish the Best of Omaha and FACES of Omaha.

Hugh J. Reilly, Omaha World-Herald, Boys Town, University of Nebraska at Omaha

Born in Omaha in 1955, Reilly was number six of 10 children and the first boy. He attended UNO, the University of Northern Colorado, and University of Arizona. Reilly has a BA in Broadcast Journalism and a MA in Communication from UNO. He is married with four children. He has worked for two newspapers, as a copywriter for two ad agencies, in cable television for six years and in PR and marketing for two international non-profits. He began teaching at UNO in 1999. Professor Reilly was the Director of UNO’s School of Communication from 2013 to 2021. He has written or co-written six books and had dozens of articles published in regional and national magazines and has written many journal articles and chapters for academic books. He led annual tours to Ireland for more than 25 years.

Robert T. Reilly, Creighton University, Holland Dreves Reilly, University of Nebraska at Omaha (posthumous)

Storyteller, Professor, Adman, Writer, Robert T. Reilly was a renaissance man. A Lieutenant during World War II, he was captured just before the Battle of the Bulge and spent several months in a German POW camp. Returning to America, he married Regina McKenzie and had 10 children. 

Reilly moved to Omaha in 1950 where he was PR Director for Creighton University and also taught courses there. In 1964, he became a partner in Holland, Dreves and Reilly Ad Agency. He ran for congress in 1970, losing in the primary by less than 300 votes. In 1972, he joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he taught classes in PR, Advertising, and Irish Literature until retirement. 

He led more than 20 tours to Ireland, Scotland, and England. He was the author of 12 books, one which was made into Walt Disney Movie, and more than a thousand magazine articles and scripts. Reilly died in 2004.

Sue Baggarly Seline, WOWT-TV, Boomer Radio Network

Sue “Baggs” Baggarly Seline knew at a young age she wanted a journalism career. Under the tutelage of Dr. David Haberman, Chuck Zuegner, Bruce Hough, and Wally Dean, Creighton University provided opportunities that made her dream come true. It opened the door to a KETV internship and she was the first host for a new Cox Cable show called “Creighton Close-Up.”

Her professional news career began at KSYZ-FM Grand Island, the night Bob Kerrey won the governor’s race. Months later, she moved to the WOW Radio Ranch with Walt Gibbs and Mike Bradley. Her TV break came in 1984 with a weekend overnight reporting job at WOWT-TV. She would work at WOW until 10:30 on Saturday nights, then drive to WOWT and sleep on a couch until Al Myers knocked on the door at 12:30, waking her for her shift. Baggarly Seline eventually moved from overnights to the State Bureau in Lincoln, working alongside Mike McKnight. Her first week coincided with Henry Cordes’ first week there for the Omaha World Herald. The two rookies learned their way around the Legislature and would become great friends.

Baggarly Seline covered presidential visits, the 1988 vice presidential debate, governors and mayors. At city hall, she met attorney Steve Seline. They married in 1992 and left St. John’s Church in the station satellite truck. By now, she was WOWT’s weekend anchor, consumer reporter, and on the Press Club Board, thanks to News Director John Clark. In 1993, Warren Buffett agreed to do a TV special with her when he topped Forbes’ Richest Persons list. The special aired October 14th. She went into labor with her first child the next night. 

Baggarly Seline eventually switched to mid-day anchoring and consumer reporting. Anytime kids’ products needed testing, she had easy access to talent with Nick, Casey and Thomas. She left television after 14 years when she learned child number 4, Libby, was on the way.

In 2014, her family launched Walnut Radio. She now finds herself behind a microphone again, helping the stations as needed, particularly at Boomer Radio, where no song is played if it was made after 1983.