The Radio Television Digital News Association today announced the 2012 regional winners of the Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in electronic journalism. KPLU won two: Audio Feature Reporting for "I Wonder Why...Seahawk fans are the loudest in the league" and Audio News Documentary for "Cat trappers fix feral felines and return them to the wild."
KPLU's Paula Wissel was the reporter on both stories.
RTDNA received more than 3,500 entries during the 2012 awards season and awarded 645 regional awards in 14 categories. KPLU competed in the "large market" category in Region 1 which includes five states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
"I am very proud of my news team," said Erin Hennessey, KPLU News Director. "And I'm especially proud of Paula and her leadership on our series 'I Wonder Why...?'. The series explores topics particular to the Pacific Northwest that people have been wondering about. They include attributes that many of us find endearing, odd, even irritating. Paula's 'I Wonder Why...Seahawk fans are the loudest in the league' was the first story in the series – setting the tone for sound rich, energy packed story telling."
New episodes of I Wonder Why...? air Friday mornings at 6:30 and 8:30 on 88.5 KPLU. You can read and listen to all of the episodes on the I Wonder Why ... ? homepage.