Former WNYT Anchor Chris Jansing Returns to Albany to Accept Women's Press Club of New York State Award

ALBANY, NEW YORK (05/29/2011)(readMedia)-- Former WNYT anchor Chris (Kapostasy) Jansing will return to Albany to accept an award for "Excellence in Career Achievement" from The Women's Press Club of New York State, Inc.(Press Club) at the organization's Annual Awards and Scholarship Dinner on Sunday, June 5, 2011 at 6 p.m. at the Albany Marriott. Awards will also be presented to locally famed "All Over Albany" founder and editor Mary Darcy who will be joined by her partner and co-editor Greg Dahlmann as she accepts the award for "Media Person of the Year" for her accomplishments in journalism this year. Legendary journalist Barbara Walters, who is unable to attend the event personally, will accept her induction into the Press Club's "Hall of Honor" electronically. The Press Club's annual scholarship will also be presented to Sarah Jane Capper.

Given the popularity of the honorees, the Press Club has decided to open ticket sales to the public through June 1st. Reservations may be made through the Press Club's website at www.womenspressclubnys.com.

The Capital Region was the launching pad for Chris Jansing's meteoric rise on the national media scene, where she best known as former anchor for WNYT for 17 years. She left WNYT to join MSNBC when the cable network was created. Her departure has quickly become a storied one and her rise to fame on the national level has all but elevated her to 'hometown hero' status. Since 1998 she has anchored and reported for MSNBC, and has been a substitute anchor for Today Show, and the Sunday version of NBC Nightly News. She is currently anchor of the 10 a.m. hour on MSNBC weekdays on Jansing and Company. Noted for her coverage of the 1996 bombing in Atlanta for which she received an Emmy, she has reported on countless major new events, including the Torino and Vancouver Olympics, the deaths of Michael Jackson and John F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Columbine shootings. Before joining WNYT as a general assignment reporter for WNYT in 1981, Jansing was a radio anchor and reporter for WTRY-AM in Schenectady from 1980 to 1981. Prior to that, she was an anchor for WOKO-AM in Albany and WIPS-AM in Ticonderoga, NY.

Mary Darcy, co-creator with Greg Dahlmann of the locally renowned blog site "All Over Albany" (AOA), is an award winning radio/television/web content producer. The pair started the increadingly popular site in 2008, and added staff in 2010 to meet reader demands. They bill the blog as containing "stuff you want to know, with a few things you need to know - and a healthy dose of stuff you never knew you wanted or needed to know." Darcy, who graduated from The College of Saint Rose with a degree in Public Communications in 1988, started out doing radio sales at a local station, but soon found her way to the news room and then landed at WAMC, where she stayed for eight years producing a nationally syndicated show called 51% that focused on women's issues. There she met Dahlmann, and together they wrote, produced and hosted a public radio program called "The Weekly Rundown." Darcy is a long-standing member of the Women's Press Club of New York State, and is also the winner of American Women in Radio and Television's Gracie Allen award for "Herstory," a public radio series narrated by Star Trek's Kate Mulgrew.

Legendary journalist Barbara Walters, who is unable to attend the event personally, will accept her induction into the Press Club's "Hall of Honor" electronically. Walters, who was hired by ABC in 1976 as the first woman co-anchor of a network evening news program, is noted as a trailblazer in the field and a pioneer who changed to course for women who were interested in the field of media and communications. She graduated in 1953 from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York with a bachelor's degree in English and shortly thereafter got her first journalism position as a publicity director for an NBC affiliate station, she moved to CBS as a writer for the network's Morning Show. Walters first became known as a TV morning news anchor for over 10 years on NBC's Today show, where she worked with Hugh Downs and later hosts Frank McGee and Jim Hartz. Walters later spent 25 years as co-host of ABC's newsmagazine 20/20. She was the first female co-anchor of network evening news, working with Harry Reasoner on the ABC Evening News and was later a correspondent for ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson. In 1975, she won her first Daytime Entertainment Emmy Award for best host in a talk series and in 1976 after becoming co-anchor of ABC news, she launched a series of Barbara Walters Specials which featured the first joint interview with Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt. In September 2004 Walters stepped down as co-host of 20/20. She remains a part-time host of the daytime talk show The View, of which she is also co-creator and co-executive producer. Her numerous accomplishments and accolades have made her a legend in her own time and a model for all those who aspire to make a difference through journalism and communications.

The Press Club's annual scholarship award for a student with an exemplary record of study and a commitment to a career in the communications field is being presented this year to Sarah J. Capper. Capper, who hails from Corning, New York, just completed her junior year at Syracuse University, where she majors in magazine journalism and art history at the Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her academic achievements include enrollment in the Renee Crown University Honors Program and acceptance into Kappa Tau Alpha honor society. She also received Newhouse's Heather L. Fleischman Memorial Scholarship for a junior woman who has demonstrated outstanding potential in journalism. Sarah Jane has written numerous articles for student publications and feature articles for Central New York Magazine and Daughters.com. Capper plans to pursue a career in print and online journalism.

Tickets are available to the general public at $50.00 per person and include dinner. All reservations are final, and must be received by midnight on June 1st. Reservation information is available on the Women's Press Club of New York State website at www.womenspressclubnys.com. E-mail reservations may be also be made at wpcnys@yahoo.com and must include name, address, phone number and e-mail as well as meal selections to be valid. No refunds for reservations made are available.

About the Women's Press Club of New York State, Inc.

The Women's Press Club of New York State, Inc., is a nonprofit organization formed in 1966 by a small group of women journalists committed to supporting women in journalism and communications. Today, the organization's members include women and men who work for radio and television stations, newspapers, government agencies, nonprofit organizations and private companies, as well as freelance writers, entrepreneurs and students. The WPCNYS provides support, professional development, programming, mentoring and networking opportunities for New Yorkers in the field.

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Contact: Women's Press Club of New York State

E-mail: wpcnys@yahoo.com

www.womenspressclubnys.com