WUGA-FM Wins National and Regional Journalism Awards

Public Radio News Directors, Inc. and the Society of Professional Journalists recently honored WUGA, 91.7/97.9 FM public radio for the Athens area, with four awards for radio excellence.

In the PRNDI category for small staff stations, WUGA News Director Mary Kay Mitchell won second place for Best Continuing Coverage for a series of stories on the proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense facility. In the student category, former WUGA intern Rebecca Bowen won second place for Best Soft Feature on the Women in Black peace activist group.

The PRNDI awards competition is the only national contest that recognizes outstanding public radio news reporting at local stations. The awards were presented recently at the annual conference in Washington, D.C.

In the radio division of SPJ’s Green Eyeshade Awards, Mitchell won second place for Non-Deadline News for a feature story on the Ellenton Health Clinic for migrant farm workers. She also received a third place award for Public Affairs Reporting on the controversy over locating NBAF in the Athens area.

For the Green Eyeshades, WUGA competes against all market sizes of radio stations in 11 Southern states. The 58th annual awards were presented recently at a joint ceremony with the Atlanta Press Club.

WUGA has won a total of 15 national, regional, and state awards for 2007, including recognition from the Associated Press and the Georgia Association of Broadcasters.

UGA Journalism Academy “All Stars” Recognized

The Georgia Journalism Academy hosted by the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication recently recognized their “All Stars,” including Cedar Shoals High School rising senior Justin Van Wicklen of Athens who was named the “MVP.”

Van Wicklen was one73 participants of the Academy—a weeklong camp for high school journalists. Students lived in a campus residence hall during the week and took classes at the Grady College in one of seven core areas: broadcast writing and reporting, broadcast news production, news writing, feature writing, editorial writing, photojournalism and graphic design. “Friday Night Lights” was the theme of this year’s camp.

The academy “All Stars” were recognized at a closing banquet in the Sanford Stadium Sky Suite. Along with Van Wicklen, the following students were named “All Stars” in their respective classes:

•Logan Butler (Stratford Academy/Macon), broadcast writing and reporting

•Margaret Chwat (Northview High School/Suwanee), editorial writing

•Meredith Fowler (Camden County High School/Kingsland), graphic design

•Macy Lister (Union Grove High School/McDonough), photojournalism

•Mary Lyons (Northside High School/Columbus), news writing

•Ayana Moore (Dunwoody High School/Lithonia), feature writing

As broadcast students produced The Grady Gridiron, a 20-minute TV news show, newspaper students were working on The Goal Post, a 12-page newspaper featuring local news, features, sports and opinions.

Van Wicklen, a member of the broadcast production team, was named an “All-Star” of his class by his instructor, Vanessa Nguyen, and competed against other class “All-Stars” for the title of “MVP.”

“Justin was a great team player who was willing to do anything,” said Nguyen. “He is a multi-talented student who not only produced great work, but motivated other students to do their best.”

Van Wicklen, who also has an interest in sculpting, said he enjoys the creative aspect of broadcast production. “I’m a very hands-on kind of person,” he said. “I like to create things, and I like to show people what’s going on in the world, so broadcast news is a natural fit.”

Van Wicklen, who hopes to attend the University of Georgia and the Grady College, said his Academy experience has helped further develop skills he learned under his high school adviser at Cedar Shoals. “I’ve gotten a new perspective on editing and I’ve learned some tremendous technique,” he said. “This has been a wonderful experience.”