Rachael Ray Receives Award At New York State Broadcasters Dinner [AUDIO]

I had the honor of being the "house one-man band" for this year's New York State Broadcasters Awards night at the gorgeous Sagamore Hotel in Bolton Landing. And guess who "cooked up" a top award? The fabulous Rachael Ray.

A New York State Broadcasters Award is a very prestigious honor if you are lucky enough to hold a mic or look into a camera lens for a living. It honors TV and Radio in multiple categories, from best community service work to "New Yorker Of The Year". A person who is no stranger to awards already (Emmy Awards etc), Rachael Raye picked up the honor and spoke very humbly about her success and her commitment to keeping her highly successful nationwide talk show very "local" and community oriented.

She said that when stars come on the show, she tries to de-emphasize their celebrity and show their human side. And when she has local people on the show every attempt is made to make them feel like celebrities. I love that philosophy personally. I think we try to do that with our show as well, and our company has the same credo (hence the term TOWNSQUARE MEDIA)

Of course, many folks in the Albany area can say that we knew her "when"... Here's a picture of her when she visited our show and actually cooked breakfast for us!

OH MY GOD, I just saw the date stamp on the bottom of this. I'm not sure that is correct, because Sean brought her on the show, and I don't think the two of us started together until 1998, so something's not right, but it definitely was more than 10 years ago.

BTW- that's not the only experience I personally have had with her, and this was pretty uncomfortable, if I do say so myself. Sean pulled a practical joke on me that totally threw me off after I spread a nasty rumor about her that I read from the National Enquirer while standing at the checkout line.

Here is the audio from that show ( I cringe every time I hear it.... Foot in my mouth, or what?)