RTDNA Honors School’s Faculty, Students with Four Regional Murrow Awards for Excellence in Electronic Journalism
By Lauren Walsh
Master’s Student
Columbia, Mo. (April 19, 2010) — Work produced by Missouri School of Journalism faculty and students has won four 2010 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) for excellence in electronic journalism.
KBIA-FM, an NPR-member station, won three of the awards. Master’s student Casey Phillips took home a regional honor for Audio Sports Reporting for “Toughest Baskeball Player,” a story about an MU wheelchair basketball player who has battled cancer throughout his life. Associate Professor Gary Grigsby won the Audio Feature Reporting category for his segment “The Green Report.” Convergence journalism student Eric Durban won the Best Use of Sound category for “The History Behind Bells,” a story that looked at the unique histories of the church bells in downtown Columbia.
KBIA-FM competes in the Midwest region against small-market radio stations in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.
RTDNA also honored Eric Blumberg, an adjunct professor and KOMU-TV sports anchor and reporter with his first regional Murrow Award for Video Sports Reporting category for “Tiger Toilets.” The story is about a local contractor with a newfound passion for hand-painting Mizzou-inspired toilets and the Tiger fans that buy them.
The winners will automatically be entered into the national RTDNA contest, which will be held in June.
“In these awards, our students compete head-to-head with professional journalists at radio and television stations in the region and nationally,” said Kent Collins, chair of the radio-television journalism faculty. “The combination of well-educated students and experienced newsroom faculty provides terrific service to the KBIA listeners and the KOMU viewers.”
The Murrow Awards honor outstanding achievements in electronic journalism. KBIA is ranked as one of the nation’s leading public radio stations. KOMU is the only university-owned commercial television station in the United States that uses its newsroom as a working lab for students.
The RTDNA represents local and network news professionals in broadcasting, cable and other electronic media in more than 30 countries. The award, named after broadcast pioneer Edward R. Murrow, is one of the highest honors a journalist can receive. RTNDA has been honoring outstanding achievements in electronic journalism with the Edward R. Murrow awards since 1971.
Updated: May 8, 2020