WUSF News reporters won honors in six categories of the Florida Associated Press Broadcasters contest.
The awards for work in 2017 were announced Saturday in Orlando, and were selected from nearly 600 entry submissions from radio and television stations across the state.
Cathy Carter received first place honors for General Assignment coverage. The radio story – “20,000 Join Women's March in St. Petersburg” – was part of the station’s digital, video and social media coverage of the January 2017 protest, the largest in the city’s history.
Mark Schreiner won top honor in the Sports Feature category for a segment from WUSF’s University Beat: "Jose Fernandez Celebrates 300 Wins as USF Women's Basketball Coach."
And Robin Sussingham’s feature on a special February 2017 concert in Sarasota - "Violins of Hope Give Voice to Voiceless of Holocaust" – won first place in the Cultural/ Historical Feature division.
Bobbie O’Brien’s work covering veterans, active military and their families won second place in the Hard Feature category. "An Unknown Future for Military Caregivers of Post-9/11 Veterans" was produced as part of her participation in a public radio collaborative called American Homefront.
Stephanie Colombini and Daylina Miller were recognized for stories in the Art Populi: Live Music In Tampa Bay series. Colombini reported on two stories, about a weekly jazz jam session and about a group of musicians performing covers under the name Bjorkestra. Miller’s story dug into Tampa’s role in the birth of death metal music. The reporters earned second place honors in the Series / Franchise Reporting category.
Roberto Roldan and Steve Newborn also were awarded second place in the Continuing Coverage category for their work reporting on the community affected by an unknown killer in the Seminole Heights neighborhood of Tampa in the fall of 2017.
Contributors to Health News Florida – the statewide public media collaborative based at WUSF – also received top honors in the contest. Abe Aboraya of WMFE in Orlando won in the Hard News category for "PTSD Lingers in First Responders After Pulse." Ryan Benk of WJCT in Jacksonville won first place in the Investigative category for "Florida Patients Stranded By State-Contracted Ride Service.”
And reporter Sammy Mack was recognized for her work at WLRN in Miami on a series called "Young Survivors: The Unspoken Trauma of Gun Violence." Her work earned honors in both the Use of Sound for Radio and Series/Franchise reporting categories.
The Associated Press is a not-for-profit news cooperative representing 1,400 newspapers and 5,000 broadcast stations in the United States. A list of winners can be found at http://discover.ap.org/contests/florida.
