Every station wants to be associated with the Murrow name and the just-announced winners of the 2019 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards can lay claim to that. A record 4,600 entries were submitted for this year’s competition. From this group, more than 720 regional winners were selected for breaking news, continuing coverage, investigative reporting, Overall Excellence and more.
WTOP wins ten.
The WTOP news team was recognized in the Overall Excellence category for the eighth time in the past ten years for its coverage of the D.C. region on WTOP and WTOP.com. WTOP also received general recognition in the category of Best Newscast for the June 29th 2018 coverage on the morning after the Gazette Murders.
Individual accolades were presented for both the Excellence in Innovation and News Series categories to reporter Michelle Basch for her digital podcast series “Going Under: The Story of Tangier Island” with help from Ginger Whitaker, Tiffany Arnold and Nahal Amouzadeh. Jack Moore and Brennan Haselton were jointly awarded honors in the Multimedia category for their feature “D.C. Uprising: Voices from the 1968 Riots” with help from Omama Altaleb, Tiffany Arnold, Dave Dildine and Ginger Whitaker. For her story “The Power of Music”, Rachel Nania received an award in the Excellence in Sound category and JJ Green’s in-depth exploration of “Spookstock,” a secret organization that hosts concerts to raise money for fallen covert agents, won in the Hard News Feature category. Noah Frank and Dick Uliano received honors in the Sports Reporting category for “Tackling Concussions,” while Jack Moore and Omama Altaleb were recognized for Excellence in Video with “Ben’s Chili Bowl.” Tiffany Arnold, Nahal Amouzadeh and Omama Altaleb were granted an award for their Excellence in Social Media.
iHeart takes home 8 awards. It was a good year for iHeartMedia which captured 8 awards in five markets, including:
Overall Excellence – KOA, Denver (KOA News Team)
Breaking News Coverage – KOA, Denver (Jerry Bell
Breaking News Coverage – WHO, Des Moines (Wendy Wilde, Jack DeLeon, Tim Burrow)
Excellence in Sound – KFI, Los Angeles (Steve Gregory
Excellence in Sound – WMSI/WJDX, Jackson, Mississippi (Randy Bell)
Sports Reporting – WMSI/WJDX, Jackson, Mississippi (Randy Bell)
Sports Reporting – WISN, Milwaukee (Dan O’Donnell
Excellence in Writing – WMSI/WJDX, Jackson, Mississippi (Randy Bell)
Check out all the regional winners HERE.
This year’s regional winners were judged in 14 regions and represent 309 local radio and TV newsrooms. These winners will move on to the national round of judging, which also includes digital and network news organizations as well as student awards. The national awards will be presented at RTDNA’s Edward R. Murrow Awards Gala at Gotham Hall in New York on Oct. 14, 2019.
“The journalists behind this year’s awards have a deep connection to the communities where they live,” said Dan Shelley, RTDNA’s Executive Director. “Their reporting demonstrated a level of care for, and awareness of, their communities that isn’t always popular to highlight when we talk about journalism. The stories they told go deeper than the surface of problems and celebrations, and gave viewers insight into topics and places they may not encounter in their daily lives. The Edward R. Murrow Awards demonstrate how journalists help us break out of our echo chambers, and contribute to productive public dialogue that brings communities together for positive change.”
