News staff adds to awards with national PRNDI honors
NPR's Audie Cornish and WILL's Jim Meadows
The Illinois Public Media News staff won three national awards June 21 from Public Radio News Directors Incorporated, including a first place award for reporter Sean Powers’ breaking news coverage of the Nov. 17, 2013, Gifford tornado.
Focus, WILL-AM’s talk show, hosted by Jim Meadows and produced by Lindsey Moon, won second place for its Oct. 11, 2013, broadcast “Parenting a Transgender Child” in the News/Public Affairs Program category.
In addition to the breaking news award, WILL’s Gifford tornado coverage also won second place in the Continuing Coverage category for news reports and a Focus program on the recovery.
“Every year, PRNDI recognizes the best journalism on a national level,” said Scott Cameron, Illinois Public Media director of news and public affairs. “To be honored in three categories is remarkable and a recognition by our peers of the work done by the news staff in the past year. The awards recognize everyone in the newsroom and at IPM who contributed to our coverage of Gifford and to the production of Focus.”
The awards were announced at the PRNDI conference in Arlington, Va. WILL senior reporter Jim Meadows accepted the award for the staff.
Earlier this year, the news staff also won three regional Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, and WILL-AM was named the Outstanding News Operation in the downstate radio division of the Illinois Associated Press Broadcasters Association Journalism Excellence Contest.