The WKMS Newsroom recently received two national awards for the radio documentary Living on the Line: Poverty in Western Kentucky at the Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI) annual conference in Salt Lake City. Attending the conference as a Board Member of the organization, WKMS News Director Chad Lampe accepted the awards given to the WKMS Newsroom for reporting about people challenged by the economy in the WKMS listening area.
In the small newsroom division WKMS won 1st Place for the “Long Documentary” 2014’s Living on the Line: Poverty in Western Kentucky and Lampe earned 1st Place for the “Short Documentary” with the segment he produced for the hour-long program, Living on the Line: Angie Smith.
Living on the Line was made possible by working families welcoming reporters into their homes and offering candid perspectives on their lives and aspirations. WKMS reporter Whitney Jones talked with 38-year-old military veteran Joseph Lee Taylor as he studies business at West Kentucky Community and Technical College, a course of action he took after losing his job at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. WKMS News Director Lampe spoke with Angie Smith, a single mom without her high school diploma who works a variety of jobs from dog grooming to housecleaning. And WKMS reporter Allison Crawford told Khara Gaskamp’s story of being a single mom of two kids while studying for a nursing degree. Producer Rob Canning worked closely with Crawford and Jones to develop online video content to truly create a multi-media project.
Listen: Living on the Line: Poverty in Western Kentucky
PRINDI made 130 awards to public radio newsrooms across the nation for excellence in journalism work of 2014. There were over 1,110 entries from public radio newsrooms judged in 21 categories including arts feature, nationally edited, best writing, breaking news and best use of sound.
