Mass Communications Hall of Fame

2008 Mass Communications Hall of Fame Recipients

Bill deTournillon Jr, and
William F. Detournillon SrFamily members say that the family was never the same after William F. (Bill) deTournillon Sr. was born on Dec. 6, 1928, in Alexandria, La. His son, Bill deTournillon Jr., jokes that his father’ssiblings, one brother and two sisters, “used to be French, but now are just Cajuns.”

Bill deTournillon Sr. attended St. Francis Cabrini High School in Alexandria, La., and he graduatedfrom Northwest Louisiana State University. He also served in the United States Navy. He began his career in life insurance sales in 1954 and continued in that role until 1960. Bill married Virginia (Ginger) Dinnat in 1951, and the two had four children, Denise, Bill, Donna, and DeJon, three of whom live in Lubbock.

Bill deTournillon Sr. landed his first broadcast job in Alexandria, La., where he worked from 1960 to 1962 at KALB radio. He moved in 1962 to KNOE-TV in El Dorado, Ark., where he worked as the general station manager. In 1963, he moved to the general manager position at KAIT-TV in Jonesboro, Ark., where he successfully took the station from a start-up independent status to ABC affiliate. KAIT-TV, under his direction, was the highest rated station in Arkansas.

The deTournillon family moved to Texas in 1966, and Bill served until 1969 as general manager at KTXS-TV in Abilene. He led the station from a distant No. 3 in the Abilene-Sweetwater market to a market leader position over three years. Often, he worked with no budget, and on more than one occasion, he funded the payroll out of his own pocket.

Bill deTournillon Sr. took over KLBK-TV and KLBK AM/FM in Lubbock in 1969, and he guided both to market leader positions. He worked as general manager until his retirement in 1983.

The deTournillon family members are no strangers to television, and especially to the Lubbock market. He introduced his son, Bill deTournillon Jr., to Lubbock television as he served as vice president and general manager at Lubbock’s KCBD-TV station. Among his 10 grandchildren, Dan Jackson is the oldest and is the third generation of broadcasters. He is the current general manager of Lubbock’s KCBD-TV and broadcasts“ Consider this with Dan Jackson.”

The senior deTournillon introduced to the Lubbock market many other broadcast journalists, including Sharon Hibner-Maines, David Underwood, Karin Crider-McCay, James Allen Micklashevski, Harley Malone, Dave King, Brian Jones and Tom Martin.

His professional activities have included being on the CBS Affiliate Board of Directors, the Texas Association of Broadcasters, and the Lubbock Advertising Federation.

Making his mark on the region’s broadcast profession and finding his audiences, Bill deTournillon Sr. has left a legacy of quality, integrity and mentorship across the generations.

2007 Recipient - Larry Beaulieu

Larry Beaulieu first traveled the broadcasting path in fall 1965, his freshman year at Texas Tech University. He came to Tech to study electrical engineering, but on a dare he auditioned for the 10-watt Tech radio station, KTXT-FM. Suddenly, he was the Saturday morning voice of the “Texaco Metropolitan Opera,” which meant he did a station ID once an hour. His on-air role expanded as he became more comfortable with the microphone. Within a few months, he was running a board shift and announcing. He realized by the end of the year that broadcasting was far more fun for him than engineering and required less math. He changed his major.
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2006 Recipient - Scott Pelley

CBS correspondent Scott Pelley has contributed stories to CBS’ “60 Minutes” since the 2003-04 season and
was a correspondent for “60 Minutes II” from its first season in 1999.

Pelley’s March 2005 “60 Minutes” investigation advanced the story about the CIA’s controversial practice of
rendition, delivering terror detainees to other nations known to use torture.

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