Daily News

Veteran WGBY Newsman Jim Madigan Inducted into Silver Circle

SPRINGFIELD — Longtime WGBY producer and host Jim Madigan has been named a 2015 inductee for the prestigious Silver Circle Award of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) Boston/New England Chapter. He will receive his award in a ceremony today in Boston.

The Gold and Silver Circle Awards are a special recognition to honor television professionals who have “made significant contributions to their community and to the vitality of the television industry,” according to NATAS. Madigan is one of six Silver Circle award recipients, which honor those with more than 25 years of distinguished service to broadcasting.

Madigan joined WGBY in December 1990 as senior producer for public affairs and is now director of public affairs. In addition to hosting WGBY’s Connecting Point public-affairs series, he is producer and host of “The State We’re In,” a weekly Connecting Point segment broadcast each Friday focusing on local, state, and national politics. Madigan is also a veteran moderator of seven gubernatorial debates over the past 20 years.

Prior to joining WGBY, Madigan was a reporter and backup anchor for WGGB/ABC 40 in Springfield, where he specialized in political reporting and Massachusetts State House coverage. This included the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans and the presidential campaign of then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Before that, he was news director for WLDM Radio in Westfield/Springfield. Prior to his broadcasting career, he served on the staff of the minority leader of the New York State Senate in Albany.

In 1992, Madigan was honored with both a New England Regional Emmy and National Public Service Emmy as a co-producer of the documentary Out of Work, a co-production by WGBH-Boston, WHYY-Philadelphia, and WGBY-Springfield.