ALBANY -- Several radio and television news operations from Central New York are finalists for New York State Associated Press Broadcasters Association awards. We're told the professional finalists were announced last week, and NYSAPBA announced finalists for college-level categories today. And in the college TV categories, it's a battle between two Central New York institutions.
A quick reminder on how the AP handles its awards. Class 1 is limited to the New York City metropolitan area. Class 2 includes mid-level markets like Syracuse, Buffalo, Rochester and Albany. Class 3 includes everything else, including Utica and Oswego.
For the “Best Regularly Scheduled News Program” category, entries were only accepted for newscasts which aired on one of two “AP Contest Days." These dates are selected at random, and kept secret until the morning of each contest day. Based on the titles of the entries, it appears that the 2012 Contest Days were October 18 and November 14.
As usual, we've only listed categories which include finalists within the markets of the CNYRadio.com and CNYTVNews.com coverage area (Syracuse, Utica, Ithaca). The full statewide list of finalists is on the AP website.
Television
Category 1: BEST REGULARLY SCHEDULED LOCAL NEWS PROGRAM
Class 3
- WENY, Elmira, "Twin Tiers Tonight" 6pm, Wed. November 14, 2012 — Staff
- WENY, Elmira, "Twin Tiers Tonight" 6pm, Thurs. October 18, 2012 — Staff
- WKTV, Utica, NEWSChannel 2 at Six — Staff
Category 2: BEST NEWS SPECIAL/DOCUMENTARY
Class 2
- WIVB, Buffalo, Wallenda Walk — Staff
- WRGB-TV, Albany, Tropical Fury — Christine Harris, Brendan Foley, WRGB News Staff
- WSTM, Syracuse, A Saint for Central New York — Matt Mulcahy, Andy Wolf, Dave Fulkerson
Class 3
- WKTV, Utica, Boilermaker 2012 — Staff
Category 4: BEST INTERVIEW
Class 2
- WHEC-TV, Rochester, WHEC Best Interview #2 - Clanton Family — Lynette Adams, Jeff Forthman
- WIVB, Buffalo, Not on My Watch — Rich Newberg
- YNN, Syracuse, Billy Blake: 25 Years Later — Bill Carey, Tom Walters
Category 5: BEST SPOT NEWS COVERAGE
Class 3
- WENY, Elmira, "Election Night 2012 Coverage" — Staff
- WKTV, Utica, Union Tools Fire — Staff
- WWNY, Watertown, Alcoa Fire — John Friot, Matt McClusky
Category 9: BEST SPORTS COVERAGE
Class 2
- WGRZ-TV, Buffalo, Helping Ryder Skate — Heather Ly
- YNN, Rochester, "Some Things Never Get Old" — Seth Voorhees
- YNN, Syracuse, Coach V's Fight — Brian Dwyer
Category 12: BEST WEBSITE
Class 2
- WGRZ-TV, Buffalo, wgrz.com: 2 On Your Side — Staff
- WIVB, Buffalo, WIVB.com — Chris Woodard
- WSTM, Syracuse, CNYcentral.com — CNY Central Staff, Maren Guse
Class 3
- WKTV, Utica, WKTV.com — Staff
Radio
Category 2: BEST NEWS SPECIAL/DOCUMENTARY
Class 3
- WRVO, Oswego, WRVO News Election Night Special Coverage — Catherine Loper, Jason Smith, Ellen Abbott, Ryan Delaney, Mark Lavonier, WRVO News Staff
Category 3: BEST NEWS SERIES
Class 3
- WRVO, Oswego, Downtown Syracuse goes residential — Ryan Delaney
- WRVO, Oswego, Local Foods Series — Joanna Richards
Category 4: BEST INTERVIEW
Class 3
- WRVO, Oswego, Profile: Ann Marie Buerkle working for a 2nd term — Ellen Abbott
- WSKG, Binghamton, Community Conversation: "The Winter That Wasn't" — Crystal Sarakas
- WSKG, Binghamton, Community Conversation: "Gratitude (David Isay Interview)" — Crystal Sarakas
Category 5: BEST SPOT NEWS COVERAGE
Class 3
- WRVO, Oswego, Post-Standard publisher explains why it's cutting print editions — Ellen Abbott
Category 6: BEST CONTINUING NEWS COVERAGE
Class 3
- WRVO, Oswego, The saga of Destiny USA — Ellen Abbott, Ryan Delaney, WRVO News Staff
- WRVO, Oswego, Residents near Watertown industrial site say pollution has made them sick — Joanna Richards
Category 7: BEST ENTERPRISE REPORTING
Class 3
- WRVO, Oswego, New York's craft breweries bubble on thanks to tax credit deal — Ryan Delaney
- WRVO, Oswego, Stand Against Suicide offers help while increasing awareness — Ellen Abbott
Category 8: BEST FEATURE
Class 3
- WRVO, Oswego, Project to protect old forests comes to Cortland — Ellen Abbott
- WRVO, Oswego, Kids study water levels' effects on invasive species at Eel Bay — Joanna Richards
Category 11: GENERAL EXCELLENCE IN USE OF MEDIUM
Class 3
- WRVO, Oswego, Syracuse man teaches the history of Ellis Island — Jasmyn Belcher
- WRVO, Oswego, Fayetteville's high tech Fab Lab — Ellen Abbott
College Contest Finalists
The college contest is open to radio/TV stories produced by students at colleges with an AP wire subscription. While commercial radio and TV entries must have aired during 2012, the college competition allows stories which aired during the current academic year, from September 1, 2012 through March 31, 2013.
The Bill Leaf Memorial Award for best regularly-scheduled radio news program is named for the former WSYR radio newscaster and WTVH sportscaster who was killed by a wrong-way drunk driver on Interstate 81 in Syracuse in 2006. This year's finalists hail from Fordham University in The Bronx and Hofstra University on Long Island.
The Chris Ulanowski Memorial Award for best radio news story is named after the longtime WRVO news director who passed away in 2011. One of this year's finalists is Jim Levulis from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, for a story titled, "Hancock Protestors." The other finalist is from Fordham.
For the Television Categories, it's a Central New York battle for top honors in both categories:
BEST REGULARLY SCHEDULED LOCAL NEWS PROGRAM
- Newhouse School - TV, CitrusTV News Live at 6:00 -- Wednesday March 20, 2013 --Alexa Greenberg, Chris Wilner, Jose Moreno, Kaitlyn Richards, Russell Oliver, Ted Goldberg
- Newhouse School - TV, CitrusTV News Live at 6:00 -- Wednesday March 6, 2013 --Jose Moreno, Alexa Greenberg, Chris Wilner, Nick Cardona, Russell Oliver, Brynn Foley
- WVHC, Herkimer County Community College, HCTV 99 News shooter standoff-- Marc Barraco, David Glantz, Adam Svereika, Jaclyn Milillo
BEST NEWS STORY
- HCTV 99 News, HCTV 99 News shooter standoff -- Marc Barraco, David Glantz, Adam Svereika, Jaclyn Milillo, Douglas Flanagan
- Newhouse School - TV, CoffeeVision - Perry Russom -- Perry Russom
- Newhouse School - TV, Understanding Greece's Debt Crisis - Lorne Fultonberg --- Lorne Fultonberg
Finalists will learn whether their entries will receive "First Place" or "Honorable Mention" at the NYSAPBA's annual awards banquet on June 1 in Saratoga Springs. Former Governor David Paterson -- who tried his hand in broadcasting as a New York City talk radio host for awhile after leaving office -- will be the keynote speaker.
Our congratulations go out to all of our local finalists. We also extend our sympathies to the many broadcast journalists who work hard every day, but didn't get to compete this year because their stations' owners removed AP wire service and/or contest entry fees from their budgets. (The contest is only open to AP subscriber stations. On top of that, entry fees range from $8 to $15 each, depending on medium and market size.)
