M.L. Schultze named Reporter of the Year
W¾ÛÉ«¸ó staff was honored with 11 awards from the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors (OAPME) in a ceremony held March 24 in Columbus, Ohio. Top honors went to W¾ÛÉ«¸ó for General Excellence – Radio, the fourth consecutive year the newsroom earned the acknowledgement. The OAPME Awards reflect standout work created in 2017.
W¾ÛÉ«¸ó Reporter/Digital Editor M.L. Schultze came away the big winner of the OAPME Awards event with four first-place awards – more than any other broadcast journalist in the 2017 contest – including Best Reporter. Ms. Schultze was honored for: Best Broadcast Writing for her story of an Akron mother who feared deportation and separation from her children; Best Enterprise Reporting for a report on a rural Ohio ride-hailing service; and Best Investigative Reporting for her examination on the role that race and past drug crises have played in Ohio’s response to the opioid epidemic.
For the second year in a row, Reporter/Host Amanda Rabinowitz was named Best Anchor for her work as local host of NPR’s Morning Edition. Ms. Rabinowitz also earned a first-place prize for Best Sportscast for her weekly Wednesday conversations with Plain Dealer sports commentator Terry Pluto, along with a second-place award for Best Feature Reporting for her recurring Shuffle segment. Launched in 2017, Shuffle airs on Thursdays and highlights local music in Northeast Ohio.
Reporter/Producer Kabir Bhatia was recognized for Best Use of Sound for his story on Dragon Boat races that raised money for breast cancer research, bringing W¾ÛÉ«¸ó News its seventh first-place award of the day. Second-place OAPME Awards went to the W¾ÛÉ«¸ó staff for its continuing coverage of the opioid epidemic in Northeast Ohio and to local All Things Considered Host/Producer Jeff St. Clair in the Newscast category.
The Associated Press is a not-for-profit news cooperative representing 1,400 newspapers and 5,000 broadcast stations in the United States.
W¾ÛÉ«¸ó is an award-winning public radio station and service of ¾ÛÉ«¸ó that broadcasts to 22 counties in Northeast Ohio from the station’s primary signal at 89.7. W¾ÛÉ«¸ó content also can be heard over WKRW 89.3 (Wooster), WKRJ 91.5 (Dover/New Philadelphia), WKSV 89.1 (Thompson), WNRK 90.7 (Norwalk), W239AZ 95.7 (Ashland) and W234CX 94.7 (Mansfield). The station adds W¾ÛÉ«¸ó-2 Folk Alley, W¾ÛÉ«¸ó-3 The Classical Channel and W¾ÛÉ«¸ó-4 The News Channel over HD Radio and as streaming audio at .
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Media Contact:
Ann VerWiebe, verwiebe@wksu.org, 330-672-9153