LABF Announces Four 2026 Preservation Grant Winners

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, May 13, 2026 | 2:20pm CT

Library of American Broadcasting Foundation (LABF)

Library of American Broadcasting Foundation has announced the recipients of its inaugural LABF Preservation Grants, awarding four organizations $2,500 each to support projects focused on preserving broadcast history.

The 2026 recipients include the California Historical Radio Society, which will use its grant to preserve and expand access to audio archives housed at the Bay Area Radio Museum and Hall of Fame documenting decades of Bay Area broadcasting history.

The Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy, known as SPERDVAC, received funding to add a new restoration volunteer and increase the organization's ability to restore and share classic radio programs from the 1930s through the early 1960s.

TCMediaNow will use the grant to help stabilize, digitize and preserve the video and film archive of longtime Twin Cities broadcaster Stan Turner.

Meanwhile, WHRO Public Media plans to preserve educational media materials from its early years serving schools in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area. The project includes digitizing approximately 20 hours of aging media stored on obsolete formats.

LABF Co-Chair Deborah Parenti said recipients were selected based on criteria including historical significance, preservation methods, public accessibility and overall impact on the field of media preservation.

Co-Chair Dave Denes, also known as "Chachi," thanked the five-member selection panel from the LABF Board of Directors for reviewing applications and choosing the grant winners.

In addition to the grants, recipients will be recognized as LABF Preservation Ambassadors on the foundation's website and honored during the Giants of Broadcasting and Electronic Arts Gala Luncheon on Nov. 17 at Gotham Hall in New York City.