Special Award: Richard Salant

Richard Salant has put in more than fifteen years at the head of what is generally conceded to be the most high-grade news operation in broadcasting. Over those years, he has extended the network evening news casts from fifteen minutes to a half hour; installed America’s favorite newscaster, Walter Cronkite, as anchor; started “60 Minutes” -- and stayed with it, when others were dubious -- to see it become the only weekly news program to reach the top of the prime-time ratings list. His tenure at CBS New has coincided with one of the most exciting and difficult periods in the history of broadcasting. He has survived head on encounters with the Pentagon, the White house, Spiro Agnew, Edith Efron, the League of Women Voters -- even the DuPont-Columbia Survey of Broadcast Journalism.

Building on the great tradition associated with such names as Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, Dick Salant has brought to network broadcasting his own high standards of intelligence, courage, and decency.

The New South: Shade Behind the Sunbelt - Associated Press Radio

Seeing our own inequities with clarity is, perhaps, a bit more difficult than judging another nation’s failures in justice. A notable exception was Ms. Julie Frederikse and Associated Press Radio’s ‘The New South: Shade Behind the Sunbelt,’ an examination of just how far civil rights have advanced in the lower half of our country.

Water: Arizona's Most Precious Resource KOOL-TV, Phoenix

There has never been a time when water, too much or too little. wasn't a matter of prime concern to the human race. KOOL-TV, Phoenix, in two half hours pegged on the mammoth Central Arizona Project told the complex story of water in its section of the country with remarkable lucidity and completeness.

Laser Con-Fusion - KPIX-TV, San Francisco

The use and abuse of nuclear power is a subject which has preoccupied the nation's journalists since the end of World War II. KPIX-TV, San Francisco, in its outstanding documentary, 'Laser Con-Fusion,' examined the pros and cons of Shive, a formidable nuclear fusion device at the University of California's Lawerence Livermore Laboratories, and uncovered a story of national significance.

The Living Sands of Namib - National Geographic Society and WQED-TV, Pittsburgh

There are still a few places on the globe that can astonish and cause delight in late twentieth century man. In ‘The Living Sands of Namib,’ The National Geographic Society and WQED-TV, Pittsburgh, found such a place and exposed it to the general view in all its austere and eccentric beauty.

Africa's Defiant White Tribe - NBC TV

For its firmly focused and devastating presentation of a subject -- South Africa’s brutal policy of apartheid -- that frequently is distorted by a too easy assumption of superiority, a DuPont-Columbia Award goes to NBC Reports: ‘Africa’s Defiant White Tribe.’

Documentary Reporting - WBBM-TV, Chicago

This year the jurors have voted WBBM an Award for their documentary programming, particularly ‘Signs of Love,’ a half-hour tribute to a bewitching three year old, and ‘A Matter of Policy,’ a two-hour blockbuster on the subject of insurance. Both programs are proof that there is no slacking off in WBBM’s efforts to explore at length and with imagination the broadest possible range of subjects.

Investigative Reporting - WFAA-TV, Dallas

’Electric Land Grab’ and ‘Grease in the Kitchen’ are just two investigative reports among the many turned out by the remarkable group of journalists which made WFAA of Dallas, another last year DuPont Award winner, one of the nation’s outstanding news stations.

Banned in Chelsea - WGBH-FM, Boston

In 1977, the school committee of Chelsea, Massachusetts, voted to ban a book in their high school library because it contained a poem they deemed unsuitable. The feelings of school board members, students, parents, and faculty became the subject matter of a radio documentary which gave a fascinating insight into the urge to censor, which is sprouting up with increasing frequency in communities across the country.

WORLD: Chachaji: My Poor Relation, & NOVA: The Final Frontier - WGBH-TV, Boston

The ‘Nova’ series has been on the Public Broadcasting Service since 1973. This year, for a series of unusually perceptive programs in the area of science and technology, including ‘The Final Frontier,’ the jurors have voted WGBH-TV and ‘Nova’ a duPont Award.

For its delicacy, its humor, its reflection of a whole nation in the simple winning portrait of an 83-year-old man, as observed by his talented nephew, writer Ved Mehta, a duPont-Columbia Award goes to Producer William Cran and WGBH-TV, Boston, for ‘Chachaji: My Poor Relation.’

Inside Albany: Capital Punishment - WMHT-TV Schenectady

WMHT-TV Schenectady’s ‘Inside Albany,’ now in its fourth year, represents a growing body of broadcast reportage which gives local and state-wide audiences a clear view of what is happening in regional seats of power. No other report has located the important issues and presented them with such clarity and objectivity as this fine series.

Investigative Reporting - WPLG-TV, Miami

Three years ago, Clarence Jones and station WPLG-TV, Miami, won a duPont-Columbia Award for their courageous exposure of racketeering on Miami’s waterfront. This year, as the miscreants pointed out in the earlier expose were finally brought to justice, the same WPLG-TV team continued its pursuit of Florida’s malefactors and con men in such series as ‘Scandal at CETA’ and the ‘Property Profiteers.’