Press Club notes
Don Day | May 4, 2008The Idaho Press Club handed out its annual awards last night. Staffers from newspapers, radio outlets and television stations (as well as some PR flacks and others) gather each May to celebrate the best in Idaho journalism. The warm-up comedian worked Paul J. Schneider into his monlogue (with a joke about the media’s coverage of his “ouster” that escapes me), and another riff about NPR’s Diane Josephy Peavy (who lives near Carey). There was also a joke about Idaho Daily Statesman entertainer Michael Deeds – who was actually in the room and also won an award.
Idaho Radio News was given the second place award for Best Website in the online publication/magazine division. The excellent Sun Valley Guide took first place honors.
Pay special attention to second place in the “Use of Sound” category…
GENERAL EXCELLENCE
1st Dave Plourde – KCHQ – FM – “Q102 News”GENERAL NEWS REPORT
1st Samantha Wright, Sadie Babits, Don Wimberly, Krisi Packer, Adam Cotterell – Boise State Radio – “A Senator in Trouble”
2nd Glenn Mosley – Northwest Public Radio – “Moscow Shooting”
3rd Andrew Jacobson – KUOI FM Moscow 89.3 – “Police Have No Leads in Weekend Murder”SPOT NEWS REPORT
1st Krisi Packer – NPR News 91/KBSX – “What Do You Think Boise?”
2nd TIE
Samantha Wright – NPR News 91 / KBSX – “Crash!”
Samantha Wright – NPR News 91 / KBSX – “Space Rock”
3rd Adam Cotterell – NPR News 91 / KBSX – “PETA Protest”SERIOUS FEATURE REPORT
1st Samantha Wright, Krisi Packer – NPR News 91 / KBSX – “Summer Feeding Program”
2nd Andrew Jacobson – KUOI FM Moscow 89.3 – “Goodbye Old Friend”LIGHT FEATURE REPORT
1st Samantha Wright, Krisi Packer — NPR News 91 / KBSX – “On the Road – Construction”
2nd Adam Cotterell – NPR News 91 / KBSX – “Tamales Not Turkey”
3rd Andrew Jacobson – KUOI FM Moscow 89.3 – “A New Face for Jazzfest”PUBLIC AFFAIRS PROGRAM
1st Sadie Babits – Boise State Radio – “The Power of the B-17″USE OF SOUND
1st Krisi Packer – NPR News 91 KBSX – “Corn Maize”
2nd Andrew Jacobson – KUOI FM Moscow 89.3 – “Moscow is Quiet”
3rd Sadie Babits – Boise State Radio – “On the Red Carpet”
Disclosure: I’m now on the board of the Idaho Press Club. Amazingly… no one said “nay” while voting on the new slate of directors that includes me.
Okay… awards are great..but what I am seeing here is that only a handful of radio stations entered…like perhaps the ones that won awards? Did they win by default? Or were there others that entered that did not win? Just wondering…
KCHQ wins because Dave Plourde puts together newscasts that are as good or better than public stations news updates… It’s nice that his owner sees the importance of a NEWS person and gives the air time.
Sand Hill was stupid to dump him… but then, music stations are about the music, right?
Nice mention of the flacks! It was interesting to see who came away with what at the end of the night. Props to you for your day-job and moonlighting sites both getting recognition.
Since you work for the “other” station, you forgot to mention that Journal’s KIVI got the Overall Excellence and Sweepstakes Awards. FYI
And as Dave Plourde would end his newscasts, “That’s thirty!”
Um, no – I didn’t forget – but it has nothing to do with RADIO. Congratulations to KIVI on their accomplishments as well.
Love to tease ‘ya. We love you anyway Don!
I spent about eight years working with the press club in various roles, and the participation in the radio category was always frustrating. Some entire categories would be devoid of entries, and awards would go out to stuff that was completely unremarkable. In fact, I have a few of those plaques sitting in my closet.
The reasons? Pick one: Since deregulation in the 80s, stations don’t have to do news, so they don’t. Staffs are stretched too thin to do enterprise reporting, or spend time compiling awards submissions. Group owners don’t place a value on awards (except at their news/talk stations) so they don’t pay for the entries or the banquet tickets. For some people, radio news is just a speed bump on their way to a TV career. And so on…
The perverse consequence of this decline in radio news is that timely, balanced, in-depth reporting has evolved into a “niche” that public and community stations can adopt as an alternative to the commercial stations.
Thanks Survivor for letting me know the answer to my question. And I should mention your answer was right on the money. One drawback that we had as a TV station was the entry fees were astronomical and the “invitation” to enter always came as a after the fact kind of thing…
I did notive the “local” paper ran a short article on the awards as well…..but to Don’s credit he “broke” the news first.
I need to clarify that in our case, it was not the Idaho Press Club that had high entry fees….it was another organization…. My comment might go misunderstood otherwise and I didnt mean to take away anything from our State’s Press Clubs efforts.
As an experiment, the Press Club gave all the radio stations two entries free for a couple of years. It had no effect on the number of entries. So the fees are not the #1 deterrent.
Actually, I blame Les Nessman. The WKRP news director looked so pathetic when he bragged about his Silver Sow trophy that it cheapened the whole award experience for the rest of us.