BUFFALO, N.Y. – WNED awarded the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau the 2010 Kevin Keane Award for significant investment in public broadcasting, WNED president and CEO Donald K. Boswell announced. This annual award, named after a WNED board chair emeritus, recognizes a company that enhances the community through mutually beneficial partnerships with WNED.

“The Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau is a trusted friend, underwriting supporter and WNED promoter,” said Gordon Bayliss, WNED’s vice president for sales and marketing. He presented the award Jan. 27 during a WNED Board of Trustees meeting. It was accepted by the bureau’s president and CEO Dottie Gallagher-Cohen and vice president of marketing Ed Healy.

“The Buffalo Niagara CVB is honored to be the recipient of WNED's Keane Award,” said Gallagher-Cohen. “Our partnership with WNED has brought Buffalo's cultural riches to a national audience and begun the process of changing our image. We are grateful to WNED for their civic-mindedness and look forward to continued success for both our organizations.”

The bureau has provided underwriting support for several of WNED’s original television productions, including the national PBS documentary “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo” and regional productions “Western New York, A to Z” and “Remembering Crystal Beach Park.”

In turn, the bureau has made powerful use of several WNED productions to enhance their promotion and marketing efforts.
“While aspiring to the highest standards of broadcast journalism, WNED has become our region’s most influential storyteller and served as a catalyst for the re-imagining and rebirth of Buffalo,” said Healy.
He points to “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo”, which premiered on PBS on Sept. 4, 2006, as an outstanding example of the benefit of partnering with WNED.

“We cannot make a more powerful case on behalf of Buffalo than our friends and colleagues at WNED have in this moving and profound production,” said Healy. “The CVB has given away several thousand DVDs of [this program].”

In 2007, the CVB distributed the DVD duringthe National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Preservation Conference in St. Paul, Minn. According to Healy, the highly favorable reaction to this film helped secure Buffalo’s bid to host the 2011 conference, which will take place in The Queen City Oct. 18-22.

In addition, the bureau has contracted with WNED to produce short promotional videos showcasing the diversity, architecture and uniqueness of Buffalo.

The CVB also has promoted WNED’s events, including the former WNED Guitar Festival and the JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition, both regionally and internationally.