AP Broadcast Awards: And the winner is ... you!

EUGENE, Ore. - When the University of Oregon hosts the Oregon Associated Press Broadcasters Association Annual Awards Ceremony on April 16, there will be a lot of winners from the news operations at KVAL, KEZI and KMTR - but one of the top prizes will go to you.

KVAL YouNews reporters won first place in the Best Use of Online Medium for a series of photo galleries of Oregon mountains, waterfalls, wildlife and more compiled by KVAL.com staff from your YouNews reports.

The entry beat out multimedia reports from the frontlines in Afghanistan filed by Dan Morrison and Cali Bagby for KVAL.com, a series of stories that took third place in the category.

Not that KVAL News journalists escaped recognition: lead anchors David Walker and Jennifer Winters placed first in Best Breaking News and Best Investigative Reporting, respectively.

And the KVAL Sports team swept the Sports Reporting category 1-2-3 and won Best Breaking News Online for coverage of Ernie Kent's departure from the University of Oregon.

All told, KVAL News won 10 first place awards and 20 awards overall. The news and sports teams swept all of the awards in three categories and won two or more awards in six categories.

For the purposes of the contest, KVAL News work was judged against entries from other broadcasters outside of the Portland area.

The April 16 awards event takes place at Gerlinger Alumni Lounge on the University of Oregon.

Best Breaking News

     Third Place: KDRV
     “Best Breaking News”
     KDRV Staff

     Second Place: KEZI
     “LaMicheal James Arrest”
     KEZI Staff

     First Place: KVAL 
     “Aumsville Tornado”
     David Walker, Loren Ruark

Best Use of Online Medium

     Third Place: KVAL 
     “Embedded in Afghanistan” 
     Dan Morrison, Cali Bagby, Mark Furman

     Second Place: KEZI
     “Interactive High Schools Sports Web Site”
     Melissa Frey, Brian More, Laura Fry

     First Place: KVAL 
     “User – Generated Photo Galleries: Your Photos of….” 
     KVAL.com YouNews Reporters, Mark Furman

Best Light Feature

     Third Place: KVAL 
     “Girls Rule the Field” 
     Nick Krupke

     Second Place: KVAL 
     “The Jack Nicholson Booth”
     Tom Adams, Bill Goetz

     First Place: KVAL 
     “Christmas Music Before Thanksgiving” 
     David Walker, Bill Goetz

Best Public Affairs

     Third Place: KDRV
     “Honor Flight”
     Ron Brown

     Second Place: KDRV
     “Studying Sex: Concerns from the Classroom
     Eric Maxson

     First Place: KMTR
     “Faces of Breast Cancer”
     Kelli Warner, Michael Turner, Renee McCullough, Nohelani Graf, Megan Higgins, Ingrid Allsteadt, Berry Thompson, Scott Dodge, Jonathan Judd, Alex Dude

Best Sports Reporting

     Third Place: KVAL 
     “Sibling Rivalry” 
     Dirk Weishaar

     Second Place: KVAL 
     “BCS Bound” 
     Tom Ward, Nick Krupke, Dirk Weishaar, Phil Milani

     First Place: KVAL 
     “Bair of a Family Man” 
     Nick Krupke

Excellence in Photography

     Third Place: KEZI
     “Model Airplanes”
     Kurt Richter

     Second Place: KEZI
     “Chainsaw Competition”
     Heather Hintze

     First Place: KDRV
     “Deadly Cash”
     Tove Tupper

Best News Writing

     Third Place: KMTR
     “Mott Triplets”
     Matt Templeman, Jonathan Judd

     Second Place: KEZI
     “Blind Painter”
     Dan Corcoran

     First Place: KVAL 
     “Girls Rule” 
     Nick Krupke

Best Weathercast

     Third Place: KTVL
     “Snow Coming to the Valley Floor”
     Krystle Henderson

     Second Place: KMTR
     “November 22nd 5:30 AM Show”
     Jordan Steele

     First Place: KEZI
     “Justin Stapleton Weather”
     Justin Stapleton

Best Sportscast

     Third Place: KEZI
     “Ducks/UCLA Football Game Night “
     Bryan Salmond, Steve Andress, Jake Zivin

     Second Place: KVAL 
     “Inside The Pac: 114th Civil War” 
     Tom Ward, Nick Krupke, Dirk Weishaar

     First Place: KVAL 
     “KVAL Sports – Nov. 6th 2010” 
     Tom Ward, Nick Krupke, Dirk Weishaar, Brian Elder

Best Hard Feature

     Third Place: KMTR
     “Concussion Dangers”
     Kelli Warner, Barry Thompson

     Second: KEZI
     “Heroin Hill”
     Dan Corcoran

     First Place: KVAL 
     “Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome” 
     Kelly Koopmans, Loren Ruark

Best Breaking News Online

     Second Place: KVAL 
     “Bomb Threat in Downtown Eugene “ 
     Laura Rillos, Tom Adams, Mark Furman

     First Place: KVAL 
     “KVAL.com – Ernie Kent Done at Oregon” 
     Tom Ward, KVAL Staff

Best Hard News Coverage 

     Third Place: KVAL 
     “A Silent Epidemic: Traumatic Brain Injury in the Oregon National Guard” 
     Kelly Koopmans, Loren Ruark, Rob Woodward

     Second Place: KEZI
     “Grass Barn Fire”
     Gia Vang, Mike Ober

     First Place: KMTR
     “Aumsville Tornado”
     Megan Higgens, Jonathan Judd

Best Continuing Coverage

     Third Place: KTVL
     “STEPS Special Education Kids Left Behind”
     Krystle Henderson

     Second Place: KDRV
     “Davis Finish Products Fire and Investigation”
     NewsWatch 12 Staff

     First Place: KVAL 
     “U of O Riots” 
     Kelly Koopmans, Loren Ruark, Katie Boer, Adam Grunseth, Tom Adams

Best Website Overall Excellence

     Third Place: KMTR
     “kmtr.com”
     KMTR Staff

     Second Place: KVAL 
     “kval.com” 
     Mark Furman, KVAL Staff

     First Place: KEZI
     “kezi.com”
     Melissa Frey, Laura Schwander

    
Best Investigative Reporting

     Third Place: KVAL 
     “Spice Ban” 
     Molly Blancett, Bill Goetz

     Second Place: KEZI
     “The Case Against Ben Bond”
     KEZI Staff

     First Place: KVAL 
     “Tim Fox Complaint” 
     Jennifer Winters, Bill Goetz