KOMU Faculty and Students Win 17 Heart of America Awards

KOMU and KBIA Also Win at Missouri Broadcasters Association Contest

Angie Bailey KOMU Adjunct Faculty Eric Blumberg KOMU Adjunct Faculty Sarah Hill KOMU Staff Jennifer Reeves Radio-TV Journalism Faculty Jim Riek KOMU Staff Janet Saidi KBIA Faculty Scott Schaefer KOMU Adjunct Faculty Stacey Woelfel Radio-TV Journalism Faculty

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Heart of America Awards Kansas City Press Club KBIA KMBC KOMU Missouri Broadcasters Association NPR University of Missouri-Columbia WDAF

Columbia, Mo. (June 18, 2008) -- The Missouri School of Journalism's radio-television journalism faculty, staff and students took home multiple awards from two prestigious competitions this spring: the Kansas City Press Club Heart of America Awards and the Missouri Broadcasters Association Awards.

Jen Ayres	Melissa Chee
Shayla Krile	Jason Lamb
Ryan Luby	Ashley Reynolds
August Skamenca	Catherine Wolf

KOMU won 17 Heart of America Awards in the annual Kansas City Press Club competition and was named "Television Station of the Year," beating out two Kansas City stations, WDAF and KMBC, for the title. KOMU is the only university-owned commercial television affiliate that uses its newsroom as a working lab for students. The station won eight gold, five silver and three bronze awards, in addition to an honorable mention. With the eight gold medals, KOMU won all of the small market television categories. The station also won a silver award in the news Web site category and received laudatory comments from the judges.

"KOMU's fantastic and easy-to-navigate site also saves lives with its comprehensive weather coverage," the judges said.

The Kansas City Press Club uses the Heart of America Awards to honor outstanding reporting, writing and photography in print, broadcast and online journalism in eastern Kansas and western Missouri.

"To beat out top news organizations in Kansas City and St. Louis in so many categories is a true testament to the hard work and dedication to the staff at KOMU," said KOMU General Manager Marty Siddall. "It is an honor for our students, reporters, producers and anchors to be recognized by both the KC Press Club and the Missouri Broadcasters Association as they continue to demonstrate KOMU's dedication to excellence."

In the Missouri Broadcasters Association (MBA) awards also announced this spring, KOMU and KBIA, the School's NPR-affiliate radio station used to train students, earned six awards total.

KOMU won both the documentary and sports feature categories and received certificates of merit in the weathercast, news series and complete newscast categories. KBIA took home a certificate of merit in the documentary category.

MBA encourages the highest standards in broadcasting by recognizing samples of excellence and achievement. Hundreds of entries from across the state are received each year and considered for the awards.

"Our entire staff, from the students to the anchors, works hard every day to produce the best newscast possible," said KOMU News Director and Associate Professor Stacey Woelfel. "It is evident with these awards that their work exemplifies the quality that is the cornerstone of KOMU News."

Kansas City Press Club Heart of America Awards

Missouri Broadcasters Association Awards

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