RTDNA National Edward R. Murrow Awards Show Public Media’s Strength

From a FRONTLINE documentary on the plot to overturn the 2020 election to a WLRN report on how researchers caught the heaviest snake in Florida history, public media excelled again this year at the National Edward R. Murrow Awards, given by the Radio Television Digital News Association to honor outstanding achievement in broadcast and digital journalism.

“These award-winning works show the breadth and depth of public media journalism, from hard-hitting investigative reporting to well-told features,” said Kathy Merritt, senior vice president, radio, journalism and CSG services, for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “These outstanding journalists fulfill public media’s essential mission in keeping people informed about and connected to their communities.”

Public media won the lion’s share of the awards in the radio categories, including network radio, with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting (in partnership with PRX), claiming four awards for reports ranging from the end of Roe v. Wade and abortion laws to why those suspected of war crimes often walk free.

Texas Public Radio in San Antonio won two awards in Large Market Radio categories, including Overall Excellence, and WCAI (Cape Cod and Islands, MA) led the Small Market Radio categories with three wins, including one for breaking news coverage of how Martha’s Vineyard residents rallied to help migrants flown there unannounced. The Kansas News Service, in collaboration with High Plains Public Radio and KMUW in Wichita, won three awards: for coverage of Western Kansas, how social-emotional learning got political, and why competitive hunting can’t stop coyotes from thriving in Kansas.

Awards will be presented at an RTDNA gala October 9 in New York City.

Public media winners:

Network TV

• News Documentary: Plot to Overturn the Election, FRONTLINE (in partnership with ProPublica)

Network Radio

• Continuing Coverage: The End of Roe: How We Got Here and the Fight to Come, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting (in partnership with PRX)
• Digital: STILL LIFE, Ukraine, NPR
• Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Locked Up: The Prison Labor That Built Business Empires, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting (in partnership with PRX and The Associated Press)
• Excellence in Innovation: Planet Money TikTok, NPR
• Feature Reporting: Radio Ukraine, New York Public Radio (in partnership with The New Yorker)
• Investigative Reporting: The Ballot Boogeymen, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting (in partnership with PRX)
• News Documentary: My Neighbor the Suspected War Criminal, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting (in partnership with PRX)
• News Series: Climate, Migration and the Far-Right, NPR/All Things Considered
• Podcast: Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong, American Public Media

Large Market Radio

• Continuing Coverage: Reproductive Rights in the Deep South, WWNO/WRKF, New Orleans, LA
• Digital: Coverage of Western Kansas, Kansas News Service (in partnership with High Plains Public Radio), Kansas City, MO
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: The Walk Home, KNKX (in partnership with The Seattle Times), Seattle, WA
• Excellence in Sound: Mariachi Extravaganza: Meet the Competitors in this Year’s “Mariachi Super Bowl,” Texas Public Radio, San Antonio, TX
• Excellence in Writing: It Takes a Python to Find a Python: How Researchers Bagged the Heaviest Snake in Florida History, WLRN News, Miami, FL
• Hard News: Research Shows Social-Emotional Learning in Schools Pays Off, but Conservatives See a Liberal Agenda, KMUW (in partnership with Kansas News Service), Kansas City, MO
• Investigative Reporting: How a Mass. Law Intended to Protect Victims Became a 'Gift to Abusers,' WBUR, Boston, MA
• News Documentary: BURNED: As California Wildfires Threaten Rural Communities, Forest Service Prevention Efforts Stall, CapRadio (in partnership with KCRW and The California Newsroom), Sacramento, CA
• News Series: Falling Short: Why Democrats Keep Losing Most Statewide Races?, WFAE, Charlotte, NC
• Podcast: Stop and Frisk: Revisit or Resist, WHYY (in partnership with Temple University Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting), Philadelphia, PA

• Sports Reporting: Even Competitive Hunting Can't Stop Coyotes from Thriving in KansasKansas News Service (in partnership with High Plains Public Radio), Kansas City, MO
• Overall Excellence: Texas Public Radio News, Texas Public Radio, San Antonio, TX

Small Market Television

• News Documentary: Water Harvester: An Invitation to Abundance, Arizona Public Media, Tucson, AZ

Small Market Radio

• Breaking News Coverage: Migrants Landed Unannounced on Martha’s Vineyard; Island Mobilizes to Help as a National Story Grows, WCAI, Cape Cod and Islands, MA
• Continuing Coverage: Sandy Hook: 10 Years Later — Coverage from Connecticut Public, CT Public
• Digital: KBIA-FM, Columbia, MO
• Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Indian Boarding Schools Tried to Eradicate Their Language. Now, the Seneca are Bringing it Back. WXXI Public Media, Rochester, NY
• Excellence in Innovation: Falmouth to Falmouth: Connecting Cornwall to Cape Cod, WCAI, Cape Cod and Islands, MA
• Excellence in Sound: “Flying on Strings and Cloth”: High Above Western Massachusetts, New England Public Media, Springfield, MA
• Excellence in Writing: The Santa Cruz Corpse Flower ... Resurrected!, 90.3 KAZU, Monterey, CA
• Feature Reporting: “Old Ladies”’ Dive into Cape Ponds Seeking Trash, Emerge Triumphant, WCAI, Cape Cod and Islands, MA
• Hard News: Teen Rescues and Resuscitates Friend Caught in the Cascades on Independence Pass, Credits CPR Training, Aspen Public Radio, Aspen, CO
• Investigative Reporting: He Built NH’s Largest Addiction Treatment Network. Now, He Faces Accusations of Sexual Misconduct, NHPR, Concord, NH
• News Documentary: Outside/In: After the Avalanche, NHPR, Concord, NH
• News Series: No Stone Unturned: Preserving Slave Cemeteries in Alabama, Alabama Public Radio, Tuscaloosa, AL
• Podcast: Deliberate Indifference, WBHM 90.3, Birmingham, AL
• Sports Reporting: Poolside Math, WVTF/Radio IQ, Roanoke, VA

Student

• Audio Feature Reporting, Black Farmers Concerned About New Loan Program, Cronkite News/Arizona PBS, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ
• Audio Hard News: Sunken Homes, WUFT News, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
• Video Hard News: Hurricane Ian: The Aftermath, WUFT News, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

To subscribe to CPB spotlights, press releases and grant announcements, go to cpb.org/subscribe.