WUGA, 91.7/97.9 FM public radio for the Athens area, has received nine awards for broadcasting excellence.
The Georgia Association of Broadcasters honored the radio station with six awards for excellence in programming during 2008. The awards include a Gabby merit award for best radio non-news program for WUGA’s classical music program “Night Music.”
News director Mary Kay Mitchell won a first place Gabby award for best news story for “Lynching Re-enactment,” which demonstrated the tale of the last mass lynching in America. Mitchell also received a first place Gabby for best series for yearlong reports that looked at both sides of the issue of bringing the National Bio and Agro-Defense Lab to Athens.
Mitchell’s story about the location filming of Black Entertainment Television’s first scripted series in Athens won two merit awards. The piece was honored in both the news story and feature story categories because it looked at both the economic and cultural impact of the local filming of the Somebodies situation comedy show.
A merit award was also given in the best feature category to “Organic Meat Farm.” The piece by Mitchell was a report about Nature’s Harmony, one of the state’s few farms that raises animals entirely in the pasture without any artificial chemicals or feed.
In addition to the state awards, Public Radio News Directors Inc. and the Society of Professional Journalists honored WUGA with three awards for radio excellence.
In the PRNDI category for small staff stations, Mitchell won first place for best use of sound for her visit to an “Organic Meat Farm.” She also received a second place award for continuing coverage on NBAF.
In the radio division of Society of Professional Journalists Green Eyeshade Awards, Mitchell won first place for best feature reporting for “Organic Meat Farm.”
