The coolest speech I never gave

I was just now going through the oxymoronic activity of cleaning out my /DO_NOT_DELETE folder when I came across a cherished piece of writing I'll always remember. Prior to taking a trip to New York City to accept an award my station won from the RTNDA for being the best small-market news web site, I drafted up a short speech in the event that I'd be able to say a few words about the accomplishment and what it means to our company.

As it turned out, the speaking privileges were reserved exclusively for those at the networks, so my voice was unceremoniously silenced. Which I was OK with. Still, I still would have liked to say the following:

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Thank you very much for having us tonight. We're incredibly humbled to be able to stand before and amongst you, our respected colleagues.

I'm joined by the two most beautiful people I've ever known - Sabrina Salas Matanane, KUAM's news director and Marie Calvo-Monge, our executive producer. So while tonight's agenda is categorized in a fashion that recognizes the achievements of the individual, if it's OK with all of you, we'd like this night to be about our team - without whom none of this would have been even remotely possible.

Bri and Marie, we've been through a helluva lot over the last seven years and we've done some really amazing things - I love you both tremendously, and it's my greatest honor that we receive this award together. Just as we've done everything else.

At KUAM, we like breaking barriers. We could very well get away with doing the bare minimum, but our audiences deserve better ways to experience news, whether they know it or not. For us, just good enough just isn't good enough.

Instead we see opportunity - providence even - in that we have the rare chance to do something really great. We work tirelessly to find a better way to deliver, distribute and let people share our content. Every story, special, segment and series we produce has a corresponding URL. This deep interactivity is crucial to the web, mobile, desktop, alerts and syndication frameworks that are the KUAM experience.

It's been a great thrill to interact with other people so talented and driven to making our industry the best it can be. Being recognized at this level validates that all of us here tonight are the people that "get it". And with us specifically having traveled halfway across the world from Guam, we're living proof that great ideas, great passion, and great implementation can come from anywhere.

We thank the RTNDA and all of you for this great honor. Thank you!