The New Mexico Broadcasters Association has selected KUNM local All Things Considered host Chris Boros as best Newscaster for 2016. We also received awards for best Continuing Coverage for Ed Williams' coverage of a toxic chemical spill south of downtown Albuquerque and best Breaking News for Rita Daniels' coverage of the Gold King Mine spill in August 2015.
The KUNM news team made a great showing at the Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies regional competition in April as well, sweeping the Enterprise Reporting, General Broadcast Excellence, and News Reporting categories. We also won awards for Feature Reporting and General Website Excellence for our public health reporting site, 11 awards in all.
Some of the awards were for our series pages, that compile all of our work on important topics, such as New Mexico Behind Bars and The APD Files. Other awards were for feature-length radio reporting like Marisa Demarco's story on the food security implications of the Gold King Mine spill on the Navajo Nation, or Ed Williams' reporting on some of the problems with storefront lending. We also won three awards for our hour-long call-in shows, on topics including teen parenting, and ethics in the Legislature.
Thank you for supporting our work, for sending us news tips and source ideas, and for the most important thing you do—tuning in to hear our work! Much of this work was produced through our Public Health New Mexico reporting project. Thank you to our funders, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, McCune Foundation, and Con Alma Health Foundation.
Here is a detailed list of the winners and stories:
Enterprise Reporting
- 1st Place - New Mexico Behind Bars - Marisa Demarco
- 2nd Place - APD Files - Marisa Demarco
- 3rd Place - Drilling Deep - Laura Paskus
News Reporting
- 1st Place - Food Security Fallout After Animas River Contamination - Marisa Demarco
- 2nd Place - Problems Linger For Borrowers Of Fast Cash - Ed Williams
- 3rd Place - Biologists: Animas River Fish and Bugs Ok, So Far - Rita Daniels
Feature Reporting
- 2nd Place - Millions of Bats Take to The Skies At Jornada Caves - Rita Daniels
General Website Excellence
- Public Health New Mexico - RashadMahmood, Marisa Demarco
General Broadcast Excellence
- 1st Place - Supporting Teen Parents - Sarah Gustavus, Jefferson White, Kaveh Mowahed, Elaine Baumgartel
- 2nd Place - Report: NM Ranks Low for Ethics, Accountability - Gwyneth Doland, Jefferson White, Kaveh Mowahed, Allison Giron, Elaine Baumgartel
- 3rd Place - Lingering Legacy of Uranium Mining - Ed Williams, Jefferson White, Kaveh Mowahed, Elaine Baumgartel
