The KBIA newsroom won five awards from the Missouri Broadcasters Association at a Saturday-night awards ceremony in Branson, Missouri. MBA awards recognize excellence in broadcast news across the state.
KBIA won more first-place awards than any other Missouri news radio station with first place in a news series for Rebecca Smith’s reporting on access to healthcare in Southwest Missouri, first place in sports reporting for KristoforHusted’s story on the MU football team and student activism, first place in feature reporting for Bram Sable-Smith’s story on confrontations between reporters and MU demonstrators and first place for best local website. KBIA also won a certificate of merit for Husted and Sable-Smith’s series Shortage in Rich Land.
“It’s a huge honor all around, but one awesome thing is that each of our three beat reporters won a first place award for individual reporting efforts,” said KBIA News Director Ryan Famuliner. “We’ve got a truly exceptional group of young, hungry journalists that is doing very meaningful work for our community.”
This spring, KBIA also won two national Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the Society for Professional Journalists and five regional Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association.