WKAR's Al Martin named Brendan Schabath as the 2023 recipient of the Earle Robinson Student Award. At an award ceremony at WKAR, Schabath was honored with the customary Earle Robinson Student Award trophy and his named engraved on the official award plaque.
The award is named in honor of legendary WKAR sports reporter and former host of Sportstalk, Earle Robinson, a member of the Greater Lansing Area Sports Hall of Fame. It was established to celebrate his reporting legacy after his passing in 2019.
The Earle Robinson Student Award is awarded in recognition of students in the sports reporting and broadcasting field who exemplify high-quality work, going above and beyond to create work that is innovative, creative, and entertaining.
"It’s an unbelievable honor to be chosen and recognized as someone to carry on Earle’s legacy," said Schabath. "It means even more when you’re chosen by people you respect, admire, and look up to, and I’m very thankful for that."
At the ceremony, Martin was joined by local sports broadcaster and longtime collaborator of Robinson, Jack Ebling, as well as Robinson's former engineer of over 10 years, Rob Bennett. Ebling had the idea behind the award after Robinson’s passing. He reached out to Martin to work together in establishing this annual honor for students at Michigan State University.
"There was no student more deserving of this award than Brendan," said Martin. "His work ethic and attention to detail is special and I look forward to seeing what he does as a professional in this business. The future is bright for him."
Schabath worked as a Current Sports beat reporter covering Esports last year, while also serving as sports director at WDBM Impact Sports. He is a graduate of Michigan State University and is currently starting his young sports broadcasting career as a broadcast assistant with the Detroit Tigers.
