Arts & Entertainment
Billy McLaughlin: How to Win an Emmy
When a ripple becomes a wave, you ride it like a surfer.
Longtime Twin Cities guitarist and composer Billy McLaughlin was diagnosed with an incurable neuromuscular disease called Focal Dystonia in the early 2000's. It affected his ability to thoroughly use his right hand to play guitar. But rather than let it entirely ruin his lifelong career even as it plundered his music-making ability, his marriage and many live concert dates, he taught himself to play with his other hand!
An incredible feat, this triumph of the human spirit story has been told often internationally and has won him prestigious awards -- including the “Public Leadership in Neurology Award” in Toronto whose past winners include Michael J. Fox, Julie Andrews, Paul Allen and Cuba Gooding, Jr., and others. The award is given annually by The American Academy of Neurology and the American Academy of Neurology Foundation for individuals demonstrating “strong commitment to neurological research and your steadfastness in raising awareness of the daily challenges of people with neurological disease and their families face.”
But when Billy called at the 11th hour about a slow-selling concert date in San Diego one summer -- where he had not played and his story had not been publicized -- something happened that underscored the power of Public Relations as a force multiplier. Despite the tight window, Media Savant went to work. What happened next was pretty amazing:
The San Diego Union newspaper did a feature story about his challenges and upcoming concert, which helped drive ticket sales.
A CBS Morning News TV producer in Los Angeles saw the story and called New York, urging them to do their version of it. Soon, Billy was being interviewed in Minneapolis by the CBS crew.
A PBS producer in San Diego saw story and the concert and planned to do a pledge-drive styled show featuring Billy and a 15-piece orchestra in a program called "Billy McLaughlin: Starry Night with Orchestra Nova.”
That program won Billy an Emmy from the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for "Outstanding Achievement, Musical Composition and Arrangement."
