SPRINGFIELD – Longtime WGBY producer and host Jim Madigan has been named a 2015 inductee for the prestigious Silver Circle Award of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) Boston/New England Chapter.

The Gold and Silver Circle Awards are a special recognition to honor television professionals who have “made significant contributions to their community and to the vitality of the television industry,” according to NATAS. Madigan is one of six Silver Circle award recipients, which honor those with more than 25 years of distinguished service to broadcasting.

Madigan joined WGBY in December 1990 as senior producer for public affairs and is now director of public affairs. In addition to hosting WGBY’s Connecting Point public affairs series, he is producer and host of “The State We’re In,” a weekly Connecting Point segment broadcast each Friday focusing on local, state and national politics. Madigan is also a veteran moderator of seven gubernatorial debates over the past 20 years.

Prior to joining WGBY, Madigan was a reporter and back-up anchor for WGGB-TV/ABC 40 in Springfield, where he specialized in political reporting and Massachusetts State House coverage. This included the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans and the presidential campaign of Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. Before that, he was news director for WLDM Radio in Westfield and Springfield.

Prior to his broadcasting career, Madigan served on the staff of the Minority Leader of the New York State Senate in Albany.

In 1992, Jim was honored with both a New England Regional Emmy and National Public Service Emmy as a co-producer of the documentary “Out of Work,” a co-production by WGBH-Boston, WHYY-Philadelphia and WGBY-Springfield.

In the community, Jim has been active in his church, Saint Mary’s Parish in Westfield, and has volunteered with WOW – Westfield on Weekends  – but above everything else,  Madigan enjoys spending time with his wife of 32 years, Lena, an administrative manager for a local law practice, and their son, Jim IV, a 2015 Summa Cum Laude graduate of Westfield State University and a teacher at Holyoke Community Charter School.