Public radio’s
increasingly prominent role in news reporting and innovation is on full display
in the 2017 Edward R. Murrow Awards, sponsored by the Radio Television Digital
News Association (RTDNA). Of the 45 radio awards, 31 (69%) were associated with
NPR and/or NPR member stations.
LARGE MARKET RADIO WINNERS
In the Large Market
Radio category NPR News stations won 10 (63%) of 16 individual awards. KUT (Austin)
won three Murrow Awards, WNYC (New York) won two and WBUR (Boston), KCUR
(Kansas City), KERA (Dallas), WBEZ (Chicago), KCRW (LA), KQED (San Francisco) WBUR
(Boston) each won one Murrow.
Commercial station
WTOP (Washington, DC) won the award for Overall Excellence in the Large Market
category.
SMALL MARKET RADIO
WINNERS
New Hampshire
Public Radio won three Murrow Awards, including Overall Excellence, in the
Smaller Radio Markets category. Public radio stations won 13 (87%) of the 15
individual awards in the category.
Vermont Public
Radio and WVTF (Roanoke) each won two Murrow Awards. Stations that won one
Murrow Award were North Country Public Radio, WITF (Harrisburg, PA), KMUW
(Wichita), KNAU (Flagstaff, AZ), WSHU (Fairfield, CT), WFIU (Bloomington, IN)
and KBIA (Columbia, MO).
NETWORK RADIO WINNERS
In the Network
Radio category, public radio organizations won 8 (57%) of the 14 of the Murrow
Awards. NPR won three Murrow Awards including Excellence In Innovation.
Reveal
from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX and This American Life’s
podcast Serial each won two and American Public Radio won one.
CBS Radio News and
ABC Radio News won most of the commercial network awards. CBS was honored for
Overall Excellence and was highly praised for its Breaking News coverage of
shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.
The complete list
of winners is available here. the awards will be presented October 9th at
Gotham Hall in New York City.
WHO WAS EDWARD R.
MURROW?
It is hard to sum
up in a few words. It could be said that
Murrow defined integrity in reporting, perfected on-the-spot news coverage, brought
investigative reporting to radio and TV and set standards that remain today.
Here is a YouTube video about some of Murrow’s best work:
BJ LEIDERMAN RELEASES FIRST ALBUM (WITHOUT
JINGLES)
If you are a public
radio listener, you’ve heard BJ Leiderman’s work. His name might not be
familiar but his musical compositions certainly are. Leiderman is the creator
of the theme music that welcomes you to Morning
Edition, Weekend Edition, Wait…Wait Don’t Tell Me, Marketplace and many, many more
programs. Now he has released his first album BJ.
Last week
Leiderman’s hometown newspaper, the Asheville
News Observer, had a wonderful profile of him [link]. I recommend it to anyone who has ever hummed
along with the Morning Edition theme song.
Leiderman has
toiled for many years in the “jingle jungle” – a notoriously fickle business. He
talked about his long-time relationship with NPR to the News Observer:
“I got paid good NPR money. Any money is
good from them. They’ve treated me very well through the years, and I quickly
found out how valuable an on-air radio credit is, especially with a quirky
name. I still get, ‘Are you the REAL BJ Leiderman?’ Like there’s a lot of us.”
I had the
opportunity to work with him in the early 2000s when I was consulting The
Stanley Foundation’s weekly news show Common
Ground. It was impressive to see and hear his composing technique in
progress. He asks clients detailed questions about the aura of the program and
vibe the show’s producers want to convey.
Though the Common Ground theme
music is not on his best-of list, I thought it was terrific.
While doing the
research for this story, I found a YouTube video that Leiderman uses as his
demo tape. It is hilarious and captures
his wit and not-too-serious manner:
Leiderman’s new
album, BJ, features The Randall
Bramblett Band and Béla Fleck. You can learn more about it and get a copy here.
ONE-OF-A-KIND TALK
SHOW GIG IS NOW OPEN
 |
| Randi Rhodes |
One of my favorite
commercial radio talk hosts, Randi Rhodes, is looking for a production wizard
and board operator for her South Florida-based audio and video company.
The Randi Rhodes Show [link] is now
available via video and audio streaming, broadcast radio and podcasts.
The job consists of
mixing the program as it happens live and multi-versioning the content for
distribution on YouTube, Facebook, Periscope and other platforms. Randi is
looking for someone with experience using YouTube, Facebook, Periscope, and Final
Cut Pro/Adobe Audition. For more information contact Randi’s manager Howard
Vine at: howard@randirhodes.com.
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