Grady's first graduate, in 1921, Lamar Trotti, became a producer of major motion pictures for 20th Century Fox.

In 1940, Drewry established the George Foster Peabody Awards to address the fact that Columbia University, home of the Pulitzer Prize, did not accept radio broadcast entries (Peabody Awards for television were introduced in 1948 and categories for material distributed via the World Wide Web were added in the 1990s).

By 1929, enrollment at Grady, which had moved into the south wing of the Commerce-Journalism Building the previous year, was nearly 70 students and included 20 women who graduated with bachelor's degrees in journalism.

The New Media Institute was founded in 2000 to explore the creative, critical and commercial implications of emerging digital communication technologies.

[7] Grady comprises three academic departments: journalism, advertising and public relations, and entertainment and media studies.

The college provides instruction at the undergraduate and graduate levels in a range of subject areas including public relations, advertising, broadcast and multimedia journalism, photojournalism, new media, communication, publication management, media innovation and entrepreneurship, and screenwriting.

The next year, the Peabody Awards were first presented to six distinguished radio winners at the Commodore Hotel in New York City.