Ann Niccum, production manager for Sunflower Cablevision in Lawrence, is ready to challenge Tom Hanks.
Sunflower this week picked up its second consecutive Community Spirit Award -- considered the industry's equivalent of an Oscar -- from the National Cable Television Assn. Hanks owns two best-actor Oscars.
Both competitors are striving for a third.
"It's incredible," Niccum said. "It inspires us to keep going and do better and win this thing every year. We don't want anybody to come along and do what we're doing. We want to be far above and beyond the best."
The award, presented during the association's annual convention in Washington, D.C., recognizes outstanding overall quality, value and community contributions in areas including news, sports and public affairs.
Sunflower's programming and execution beat entries from 18 other systems with 50,000 or fewer subscribers; other finalists were Adelphia Communications systems in Chino and Oxnard, Calif.
Sunflower, with 30,966 subscribers in Lawrence and Eudora, is a division of The World Company, which owns the Journal-World.
Sunflower submitted samples of its 70 hours of local programming each week, including 6News, Fusion, River City Weekly, Home & Away and High School Game of the Week. Entries were judged on program content, execution and viewer impact.
"Basically, it (Sunflower) is giving the community exactly what they want: The things that are not available on an NBC or a CBS or an ABC or an HBO," said Michelle Ray, who coordinated the competition for the cable association. "It's really community-based programming. And it's very slick, very professional.
"The quality of the programming - I'd hate to say it's broadcast quality, but it's there."
Dolph C. Simons Jr., president of The World Company, said he envisioned such excellence when he started Sunflower in 1971. At the time, TV viewers struggled to capture signals from stations in Kansas City or Topeka, depending on their proximity to Mount Oread.
"We've always wanted to give the people of Lawrence something much more than just a master antenna," Simons said. "We're very fortunate to be recognized for excellence. From the outset we've had excellent people. The people are what make the difference."
The cable industry's predecessor awards to the Community Spirit Award were known as the Ace awards. Sunflower won its first in 1981 for a music show, "Bringing It All Back Home." It won additional national Ace awards in 1987 for overall commitment to cable programming, and for its news shows in 1995 and 1996.
With about 50 employees involved in news and production, Sunflower continues to strive for improved coverage and offerings, said Cody Howard, news director. Currently 6News is planning live coverage for Tuesday's elections of Lawrence city commissioners and school board members.
"We may not have thousands of employees across the region, but we have the commitment from the Simons family and everyone that works over here to put on quality local programming and quality local news about Lawrence that you're not going to find anywhere else," Howard said.
-- Business editor Mark Fagan can be reached at 832-7188.
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