WILL Wins 4 AP Awards

WILL reporters and contributors won four awards in the downstate radio division of the 2012 Illinois Associated Press Broadcasters Association Journalism Excellence Contest, including best sports report and best hard news feature. Students at Urbana's Urbana University High School won 2nd place in the Best Series or Documentary category for their WILL-AM reports on the counter-culture era in Champaign-Urbana.

WILL awards include:

BEST SPORTS REPORT:  “Labor Strife in Professional Sports,” a Focus program hosted by Craig Cohen with Michael LeRoy, professor, School of Labor and Employment Relations and College of Law, University of Illinois. Travis Stansel was the producer.

BEST HARD NEWS FEATURE: “SCOTUS health care,”a story by Craig Cohen, Sean Powers, Jim Meadows about the impact in Illinois of the U.S. Supreme Court's health care ruling.

BEST NEWSWRITER:  2nd Place: Sean Powers for a group of news stories on a variety of topics.

BEST SERIES OR DOCUMENTARY:  2nd Place:  “Beyond the Tie-Dye: Counterculture in Champaign/Urbana 1965-1975.” WILL's Dave Dickey, producer; University High School teacher Janet Morford, producer; and student producers Aishwarya Gautam, Shruti Vaidya and Sarah Joy Yockey. Students interviewed 16 Champaign-Urbana residents about their experiences during the period.

WILL has worked with University High students to produce radio documentaries since 1995.

The awards will be presented Saturday, April 20, at the Illinois News Broadcasters Association spring convention in Urbana.