Five months after CBS pulled the plug, CBS News Radio is still collecting hardware. Two national Murrow Awards landed for work produced by a newsroom that has since been dismantled, and the alumni who accepted them made sure the room understood the irony.
Former CBS News Radio staffers accepted two national Edward R. Murrow Awards at the Radio Television Digital News Association’s Murrow Awards Gala at Gotham Hall in New York on Monday, October 12. The network won Overall Excellence and Newscast in the Network Radio category, with the newscast honor going to the entry “CBS World News Roundup: Plane Crash at DCA.” RTDNA announced the national winners in August.
Twenty-five former staff members and colleagues attended. When the Overall Excellence award was presented, the group assembled onstage, a sign reading “Fired for Overall Excellence” went up, and the journalists in the room gave them a standing ovation that went on for minutes. Among those accepting were former Operations Manager Dustin Gervais, former Executive Editors Jennifer Brown and Tara Lipinsky, former Manager of Affiliate Services Amy Bolton, and former Vice President and General Manager Craig Swagler, now President and CEO of Baltimore Public Media.
Swagler told Radio Ink, “It was a powerful, bittersweet moment: journalists recognized among the best in the industry for work produced by a newsroom that no longer exists.”
Former CBS News Radio Manager of Affiliate Services Amy Bolton called it, “Going out in a blaze of glory.”
CBS announced the shutdown in March and ended the service on May 22, citing economic pressures and changes in station programming strategies. All CBS News Radio positions were eliminated, affecting about 700 affiliated stations.
