INDIANAPOLIS – The Society of Professional Journalists honored Hubbard Broadcasting and KSTP-TV with its national Historic Site in Journalism award on Friday, June 26, in St. Paul, Minn. This marked the first time the award has been given in Minnesota.

The annual Historic Site in Journalism designation has been bestowed on news organizations, people or landmarks of national interest since 1942. KSTP-TV and Hubbard Broadcasting will be honored during SPJ’s Centennial year, joining a long list of distinguished winners. Past winners include the Hartford Courant, the oldest newspaper of continuous publication in the United States; Elizabeth Timothy, the first female publisher of an American newspaper; and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the editor of the black newspaper Memphis Free Speech.

In 1925, Stanley E. Hubbard began his company’s broadcasting history with a radio station that played dance music. Twenty-three years later in 1948, Hubbard established the Midwest’s first commercial television station. That purchase was the beginning of a notable line of firsts for Hubbard Broadcasting, including: the first TV station in the United States to broadcast in color, the first to broadcast a seven-day schedule and the first to use remote satellite reports inside newscasts.

Other remarkable contributions to journalism include Hubbard’s role in starting what is currently the small satellite dish television and a satellite news service called CONUS, which offered news feeds to stations and KSTP’s investigative units in Minnesota.

Read more about the Historic Sites in Journalism program and see a list of all previous honorees at www.spj.org/a-historicsites.asp.

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information about SPJ, please visit www.spj.org.

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