In this episode of Sound Effect, we’re featuring stories from this show and the KNKX newsroom that earned regional and national recognition.
Youth and education reporter Ashley Gross talks about a quirk in state policy that is giving an artificial boost to graduation rates across the state. KNKX’s Will James dives into the turmoil that, up until recently, plagued the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office. Producer Posey Gruener shares the story of a beloved professional boxer whose life was tragically cut short. Gabriel Spitzer introduces us to a man who is helping his homeless neighbors, one makeshift toilet at a time. And producer Kevin Kniestedt shares what he learned after rediscovering a box of old love letters from past girlfriends. (KNKX's Ed Ronco and Geoffrey Redick also earned recognition for long-form storytelling about the five-year anniversary of the Oso landslide, part of the station's regional reporting project KNKX Connects.)
KNKX's story about graduation rates is part of a series titled “Who’s Counted,” which earned first place in investigative reporting in the regional Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association.
KNKX’s story about the Pierce County Medical Examiner, which was jointly reported by Will James and Kari Plog, earned a first-place investigative award from the regional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Sound Effect’s story on Eloy Perez earned a second-place award in the hard news feature category from the regional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Sound Effect’s story about Mark Lloyd’s toilet project earned a second-place award in soft news feature reporting from the regional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Sound Effect’s commentary, “The Ex-Files,” earned a second-place award from the national Public Media Journalists Association.
KNKX also earned national recognition from the Public Media Journalists Association for special programming on the five-year anniversary of the Oso landslide, the single deadliest landslide in U.S. history that happened in the small Snohomish County community. It was part of the station’s regional reporting project, KNKX Connects. Host Ed Ronco and producer Geoffrey Redick earned second place in the long documentary category for “Oso Five Years Later.”
