Wyoming Public Radio Wins Murrow Awards

Wyoming Public Radio (WPR) won three Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association for the third straight year.

The highly coveted awards recognize the best electronic journalism produced by radio, television and online news organizations around the world.

WPR won the hard news category for a feature story by former WPR reporter Aaron Schrank. His story featured 18-year-old Rihanna Kelver, a Laramie High School senior who fought to educate the school district about transgender students like her. This is his third regional Murrow award.

Reporter Melodie Edwards won the award for best use of sound for her story on the intimate lives of mountain lions. She combined audio and video to present a popular story for listeners and social media users.

The final award for WPR was the award for best series for a compelling two-part look at Native American boarding schools. This story was a collaboration by Edwards and Schrank.

First, the series looked at the fight by the Northern Arapaho tribe to get remains returned to the Wind River Indian Reservation. The second part looked at the difference between the current boarding schools and the schools of the past.

“Murrow awards are some of the most respected in the world, so it’s an honor to win three,” says Bob Beck, WPR news director. “It not only honors these outstanding reporters, but our entire newsroom as well.”

Region 3 includes all commercial and non-commercial radio stations in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Regional winners automatically advance to the national Edward R. Murrow Awards competition, which will be judged this month. National awards will be announced in June.

Wyoming Public Media is a division of the Outreach School and a service of the University of Wyoming. With transmitters and translators throughout the state, WPR reaches nearly every community in Wyoming. For more, go online to wyomingpublicmedia.org.