Each year more than 100 public radio news directors gather to conduct industry business hoping they’ll return home with an award or two recognizing their team's work as outstanding. This June, the WLRN-Miami Herald News team picked up five of the news awards at the annual PRNDI conference.
Three first place awards went to:
The Florida Roundup,in the call-in program category, for addressing the appalling performance of the Florida Department of Children and Families with its repeated failure to protect children from abusers. The popular Friday noon show is hosted by Tom Hudson and produced by Elaine Chen.
Meet The Man Behind All Those South Beach Pastels, soft feature, student category. Julia Duba, now a graduate of Florida International University and WLRN reporter, memorably introduced the late designer of the iconic South Beach palette to listeners while still a student.
When the world learned South Africa’s Nelson Mandela passed away, veteran reporter Rick Stone recalled the anti-apartheid leader's controversial visit to Miami and the long awaited changes that followed. Stone’s piece, How Miami's Shrewd Black Leadership Turned The Mandela Snub To Local Advantage, won the spot news category.
Reporter Wilson Sayre won second place in the commentary category with “What It’s Like To Be Related To A President," her piece about being related to former president Woodrow Wilson.
The swell of PRNDI awards to WLRN concluded with a second-place finish in the series category for “Elevation Zero: Rising Seas In South Florida,” which explored everything from why humans have a hard time grasping slowly evolving threats (even when they’re significant) to what some local governments are or aren’t doing to effectively address this worrisome tide in the affairs of men.
