GLT Newsroom Awards

2013 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards

The Radio Television Digital News Association has awarded the WGLT News Department with four regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for broadcast excellence. Since 2005, WGLT has won 24 regional and 3 national Edward R. Murrow Awards. In March of 2012, the Illinois Associated Press announced WGLT had won four awards for broadcast excellence.

• GLT's coverage of the school shooting at Normal Community High School on September 7, 2012 won in the Breaking News Category. Included in consideration for the award was an exclusive interview GLT aired that afternoon with one of the students who helped disarm the shooter. No one was hurt.
• Daniel Hajek's report on Bloomington-Normal's introduction to food trucks took the award for Best Feature. His story "Two Blokes and a Bus" featured Twin City residents sampling the food and explored the tension felt by traditional restaurants
• The GLT News team (Hajek, Charlie Schlenker, Jim Browne, Willis Kern and Laura Kennedy) won the Best News Series category for a second straight year with their look at the agriculture industry in "Farming: A Growing Concern."
• Schlenker won in Best Sports for his story about a central Illinois speed skater.

GLT News is being honored in the region which includes small market stations in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Each regional award competes for national honors to be announced this summer.

The Illinois Associated Press has honored GLT for journalistic excellence for the 12th consecutive year. Awards include Outstanding News Operation, Best Series/Documentary and Best Reporter. The GLT news team has also received four second place awards in the Downstate Radio category.

WGLT has received 56 Illinois AP journalism awards in the past ten years, with a total of 80 awards in the last fifteen years.

 The 2012 awards, announced March 11, 2013, are as follows:

Outstanding News Operation: GLT Newsroom
Best Series/Documentary: Farming: A Growing Concern. Willis Kern, Charlie Schlenker, Jim Browne, Laura Kennedy, Daniel Hajek
Best Reporter: Charlie Schlenker
Best Reporter, 2nd Place: Willis Kern
Best Newscast, 2nd Place: WGLT News, Willis Kern, Charlie Schlenker, Jim Browne
Best Spot News, 2nd Place: NCHS Shooter Coverage, Willis Kern, Charlie Schlenker, Jim Browne, Laura Kennedy
Best Hard News Feature, 2nd Place: Fracking: Economy or Environment" Willis Kern

2012 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards

The Radio Television Digital News Association has awarded the WGLT News Department with two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for broadcast excellence. Since 2005, WGLT has won twenty regional and three national Edward R. Murrow Awards. Last month, the Illinois Associated Press announced WGLT had won four awards for broadcast excellence.

The highly-acclaimed GLT News Series, “Since 911” won in the extremely competitive category of Best News Series. Winners Jim Browne, Charlie Schlenker, Laura Kennedy and Willis Kern looked at how central Illinois has reacted over the past ten years to the terrorist attacks of 2001. Examined were the areas of arts, emergency response, politics and religion. Hear all four parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

For the fifth consecutive year and seventh time in the past eight years, Schlenker, GLT’s Assistant News Director, took Regional honors in the Best Writing Category.

GLT News is being honored in the region which includes small market stations in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Each regional award competes for national honors to be announced this summer.

GLT 2011 Associated Press Awards

The Illinois Associated Press  has honored GLT for journalistic excellence for the 11th consecutive year. GLT has received one first place and three second place awards in the Downstate Radio category.

WGLT has received 53 Illinois AP journalism awards in the past ten years, with a total of 76 awards in the last thirteen years. The 2011 awards, announced March 12, 2012, are as follows:

• Best Use of Sound, First Place – Charlie Schlenker’s report, “Veterans Postcard” aired on Veterans Day last year and contained a montage of central Illinois WWII veterans woven against an appropriate musical backdrop.
• Best Newswriter, Second Place - Judges gauge the clarity and quality of broadcast writing. Charlie Schlenker’s streak of being honored in this category now stretches to a second decade.
• Outstanding News Operation, Second Place – An assessment of the overall body of work of the news department, including in-depth and feature reporting, spot news coverage, and interviews. Also included are regularly-scheduled program segments Dean of Green ®, Uncommon Knowledge and other aspects of GLT’s programming.
• Best Series/Documentary, Second Place – In “Since 9/11”, GLT’s News Department looked at how central Illinois has reacted over ten years to the terrorist attacks of 2001. Examined were the areas of arts, emergency response, politics and religion.
  art 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4