WUSF Public Media journalists won 11 honors Saturday night in the Florida Associated Press Broadcasters Contest, including five first-place finishes and a second-place award for Station of the Year.
The station’s award for overall excellence recognized work on: the station’s housing series “Growing Unaffordable;” news coverage of the 2018 midterm elections; an investigative broadcast and digital story on growth in Central Florida’s ‘Four Corners’ region; stories about people who moved to Tampa following the devastating damage of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico; and an arts feature on the region’s emerging glass art scene.
In addition to the staff-wide honor, seven individual members of the WUSF newsroom were recognized in the FAPB contest which included 581 news, sports, and feature story entries, broadcast on radio and television in 2018. Several WUSF journalists won multiple honors in the Radio 1 category, for the state’s largest radio stations.
The awards include:
- Feature, Hard News – First Place - Steve Newborn, "Bus Rapid Transit Replaces Light Rail In Eyes of Transit Planners"
- Feature, Light News – First Place - Lisa Peakes, "Virtual Holocaust Experience Is Personal”
- Feature, Cultural / Historical - First Place - Cathy Carter, "The Life and Photography of Herb Snitzer," and Second Place - Bobbie O'Brien, "Florida Orange Juice Has Roots In World War II Military"
- General Assignment, Short Format – Second Place - Daylina Miller, "Young Voters Push Peers To The Polls"
- General Assignment, Long Format – First Place, Daylina Miller, "Autistic Children Face Medicaid Snags For Therapy," and Second Place - Daylina Miller, "Safe Campus To Help Young Sex Trafficking Victims Heal"
- Public Affairs Show - Second Place - Robin Sussingham and Stephanie Colombini, "Florida Matters: Navigating The Medical Marijuana Industry"
- Sports Feature – First Place - Bobbie O'Brien, "Lightning Have Made Tampa A 'Hockey Town' "
- Use of Sound for Radio - Second Place -Cathy Carter, "'I Was Right There': Herb Snitzer On Life Behind The Lens"
Also, WUSF reporter and Morning Edition Anchor Jessica Meszaros was honored for work at WGCU in Fort Myers. The station placed second in the Radio II Public Affairs Category for the show "Continuing the Conversation About Sex Trafficking Awareness Beyond the Month of January."
