Athens, Ga. – The Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Association recently honored WUGA, 91.7/97.9 FM public radio for the Athens area, with six first place awards for outstanding radio reporting. WUGA competed against all radio stations in Georgia outside of the Atlanta market.
WUGA News Director Mary Kay Mitchell won five first place awards including top honors for Best Anchor/Reporter. Mitchell anchors WUGA’s afternoon newscasts, reports on community issues and features and moderates the weekly reporters’ roundtable, “Athens News Matters,” which airs on Thursdays at 4:30 p.m.
Mitchell won Best Series Reporting for her year-long series of stories on Athens as one of the finalist sites for the location of the proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense facility, a federal lab designed to research animal diseases. Supporters think the lab will bring needed economic development to the area, while opponents believe the facility will be unsafe and damaging to the environment.
A profile of the Ellenton Health Clinic for migrant farm workers garnered Mitchell the award for Best Feature Reporting, as well as the honor of Best Use of Sound. The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service is one of the partners in the one-stop shop for providing holistic health care to migrants in the Colquitt County area of south Georgia.
The University System of Georgia’s Alternative Media Access Center was the center of Mitchell’s award-winning piece for Best Specialized Reporting. Georgia is one of only two states that has such a central repository for providing free electronic textbooks to all college students with print-related disabilities.
Former WUGA intern Rebecca Bowen was recognized for the Best Spot News story for her coverage of Women in Black who have stood silent vigil in downtown Athens every Tuesday night since the Iraq War began. Bowen’s story covered the peace organization’s fourth anniversary “Honk for Peace” event.
For more information on WUGA, see http://www.uga.edu/wuga/.