KQED Receives Six Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards

KQED is the proud recipient of six regional Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA). The awards recognize the best journalism produced by radio, television and digital news organizations around the world.

KQED received an award for Breaking News Coverage for its field reporting on the Kincade Fire. The reporting done for this involved the work of Michelle Wiley, Danielle Venton, Raquel Maria Dillon, Dan Brekke, Tiffany Camhi, Jeremy Siegel, Vanessa Rancaño, Kevin Stark, Lily Jamali, Alex Emslie and the entire KQED newsroom.

KQED’s podcast The Bay took home an Excellence in Innovation honor. Over the past year, the daily news podcast has covered everything from the politicized nature of space on BART to how race shaped the media’s coverage of the Orinda party house shooting. The Bay podcast includes the work and contributions of host Devin Katayama, Marisol Medina-Cadena, Erika Aguilar, producer Ericka Cruz Guevarra and editor Alan Montecillo.

KQED’s reporting on the Oakland Unified School District Closures also earned a Murrow distinction in the Continuing Coverage category. Key collaborators on this coverage include reporters Vanessa Rancaño, Julia McEvoy and Matthew Green.

KQED received an award in Excellence in Social Media for When the Lights Go Out: Preparing the Bay Area for Power Shutoffs. This project helped spread crucial reporting on the PG&E shutoffs and offered audiences a space to engage with KQED’s reporters. This initiative was made possible by the work of Bianca Hernandez, Carly Severn, David Marks, Julia B. Chan and KQED digital and audience teams.

Hoby Wedler Thinks About How Your Water Bottle Sounds, a story by Sam Harnett and Chris Hoff about a man who helps brands ‘design’ the sound of their products, received a distinction in the Excellence in Sound category.

In the Investigative Reporting category, KQED was acknowledged for Who Do You Call for Help When Your Abuser Is a Cop? The reporting is part of the California Reporting Project, a collaboration between news organizations to collect and analyze internal police misconduct records that have been released under state law. KQED’s Sukey Lewis, Alex Emslie and David Marks played a key role in this collaboration.

KQED also shared an award for a statewide collaboration with KPCC and California Dream Project in the Excellence in Multimedia category for Graying California, a project chronicling California’s fastest-growing age group in the state.

“It’s great to see KQED journalists and our journalism recognized for their accountability reporting and powerful storytelling. The range and breadth of this coverage is impressive and our audiences are responding and need our services more than ever, particularly during our current crisis,” says Holly Kernan, KQED’s Chief Content Officer.

All the winners now move on to be considered for national awards. A complete list of the 2020 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards winners can be found at rtdna.org.