WGBH News reporters were recognized this week by the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Associated Press Radio and TV awards, receiving honors in the investigative reporting categories, as well as for reporting hard news and for capitalizing on the rich history kept in WGBH’s archives.
The Changing Catholic Church took a close look at changes in church leadership, as well as change in the demographics of the church’s faithful. The collection won for best investigation (Division A) and included stories by Adam Reilly, Anne Mostue, Ibby Caputo, Phillip Martin and James Edward.
Desperate for a Cure is a 5-part series by WCAI/WGBH’s senior reporter and editor Sean Corcoran, who sought out recent innovations related to finding a cure or preventative for Alzheimer’s disease. To report the story, Sean traveled to labs in San Diego, Boston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and New York City. His work won for best investigation (Division B).
Unseen, Mortal Wounds: The Struggle to Prevent Veteran Suicides won for best hard news story by Ibby Caputo, who took her cue from an alarming estimate by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs that an estimated 22 veterans take their own lives every day. She followed up with two Massachusetts families: one mourning the loss of their veteran son, who took his own life, and the other struggling to keep a wounded veteran alive.
Witness To History: The March On Washington 50 Years Later, hosted by Callie Crossley and Bob Seay, draws upon the original live coverage of the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom as recorded by the Educational Radio Network, an early incarnation of NPR. That remarkable technological achievement, coordinated by six stations linked together using phone lines from Washington, to Philadelphia, to New York, to Boston, brought audiences 15 hours of live coverage of the march. The one-hour presentation of highlights from that broadcast won for best documentary.
