Honored.

WBUR wins prestigous journalism awards.

THIS SPRING, WBUR won three Edward R. Murrow Awards from the National Radio and Television News Directors’ Association. The station also received top honors at the 2007 Regional Associated Press Awards and a Direct Marketing Association Award for Airwaves.

“This year’s award ceremony results serve as further testimony to the great talent and unrivaled dedication and professionalism of the WBUR staff,” said WBUR general manager Paul La Camera.

Highlighting both the National Murrow and AP ceremonies was Rachel Gotbaum’s “Boston Medical Center,” which won for “Best Documentary.” The piece examined how the heroic medical facility serves Boston’s diverse population base.

“Documentaries allow both the reporter and the listener to immerse themselves in a subject and really understand an issue through long-form storytelling,” says Gotbaum. “It’s almost like a mini-PhD for the ears and an all-around audio experience. Documentaries also requires consistent teamwork. I could not have produced this work without my team, which includes Assistant Program Director and Senior Editor of WBUR's Inside Out Documentary unit, Anna Bensted, and Technical Director and sound magician, George Hicks.”

Gotbaum believes the documentary worked on several levels: “It’s the story of Boston’s history and how a public hospital, so vital to the city’s identity, struggled to re-invent itself so that it could serve the poor. It’s also the story of Boston politics and how different power players were finally able to come together and create a new kind of medical institution against all odds. This is truly a unique Boston story.”

WBUR also won awards for more than just programming. In April, The New England Direct Marketing Association honored the station's member magazine Airwaves with a Silver Award for “Best Collateral.”

“This was the first year we submitted our work for an award,” said WBUR marketing director Mike Steffon. “Winning was a great achievement, especially considering our time constraints, our challenges, and that we produce everything in-house.”

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Award Winners

Electric Shock Treatments
Best Hard News Feature, Edward R. Murrow
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Kenya’s Fastest Town
Best Sports Reporting, Edward R. Murrow
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A Mission, A Merger and a Medical Center
Best Documentary, Edward R. Murrow & Associated Press
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War on the Homefront
Best News Feature, Associated Press
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Boston at the Crossroads
Best Public Affairs Feature, Associated Press
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Only A Game
Best Sports Program, Associated Press
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Cirkestra
Best Use of Sound, Associated Press
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