New England Public Media Newsroom Wins Regional Murrow Award for Excellence in Sound
SPRINGFIELD, MA (May 7, 2021) Springfield, MA — New England Public Media’s newsroom has won a prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association. The award for “excellence in sound” was given in the Small Market Radio category in Region 10, which covers the New England states. The winning story, “Officers Take A Knee To End Tense Protest In Northampton, Mass.” produced by reporter Alden Bourne, first aired on June 2, 2020. The story now moves on to the RTDNA’s national round for consideration.
“The best radio stories put your right in the scene,” said NEPM News Director Sam Hudzik. “That’s what Alden did here, taking listeners along as he covered a march against police brutality, as tensions rose outside the police station, as the situation escalated and then subsided. You hear the demonstrators, the speeches, the anger, the negotiations. I’m proud of our coverage in the past year of protests for racial justice, as well as our reports examining underlying systemic issues.” “This story was a lesson in what can happen when you keep gathering sound on the scene to see what might unfold,” said Bourne. “That was the recommendation of News Director Sam Hudzik after the initial march and demonstration were over, and it proved fruitful. I was able to tell a more complex and compelling story — one that hopefully added to our listeners’ understanding of last summer’s protests against police brutality.” |
NEPM’s Alden Bourne
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Before joining New England Public Media, Bourne was a producer for the CBS NEWS program 60 Minutes. In that role, he covered topics ranging from art, music and medicine to business, education, and politics. Working with correspondent Morley Safer, he reported from locations across the United States as well as from India, Costa Rica, Italy, and Iraq. He was part of the 60 Minutes team that won a duPont-Columbia University Award for “60 Minutes: Punishing Saddam,” a report on the impact of U.N. sanctions on the children of Iraq. He has also been honored for excellence in coverage of race and ethnicity by the Columbia University School of Journalism for “Vice Versa,” a story on a white-only scholarship program at an historically Black college in Alabama. Alden has been on staff at NEPM since May 2016.
The Radio Television Digital News Association has been honoring outstanding achievements in electronic journalism with the Edward R. Murrow Awards since 1971. Award recipients demonstrate the spirit of excellence that Murrow set as a standard for the profession of electronic journalism.
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