News Releases Awards KOMU Broadcast Journalism

Radio-Television Journalism Senior Dan Kennedy Places in Top 10 of Hearst Broadcast News Competition

William Randolph Hearst Foundation Journalism Awards Program

Columbia, Mo. (March 22, 2013) — Dan Kennedy, a radio-television journalism senior at the Missouri School of Journalism, has received a top 10 placement in the Broadcast News Competition II of the Journalism Awards Program sponsored by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

Dan Kennedy
Dan Kennedy

Kennedy’s entry was a September 2012 story about price gouging at Mid-Missouri’s only four-star hotel. His investigation revealed that the Tiger Hotel was charging some customers double for reservations they had made at a lower price months in advance for SEC home football weekends. After the story aired, the state’s attorney general and Sen. Kurt Schaefer got involved and demanded the hotel refund customers.

That story, Kennedy said, allowed him to experience firsthand how he could be an advocate for viewers. Kennedy will receive a certificate for earning eighth place.

The judges for this category, all professionals in radio and television, were Edward Esposito, vice president, Information Media, Rubber City Radio Group, Akron, Ohio; Kate O’Brian, senior vice president, ABC News, New York; and Fred Young, retired senior vice president of News, Hearst Television Inc., Yardley, Pa.

The 2012-13 broadcast news competitions are held in 106 member colleges and universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs. The Broadcast News Competition was added in 1988 to the Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program that for 53 years has included writing, photojournalism and multimedia, and now offers awards totaling up to $500,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends.

Updated: July 14, 2020

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