Winners announced in 2015 PAPBA contest — WHYY stories ahead!

Four radio and television stations were honored with the Joe Snyder Award for Outstanding News Service on Friday at the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s annual awards banquet.

The award is named in memory of the late Joe Snyder, longtime chief of bureau of the Pennsylvania AP who was instrumental in founding the PAPBA. The award went to WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, WHTM-TV in Harrisburg, WHYY radio in Philadelphia and WITF radio in Harrisburg.

WHTM-TV also won the new First Amendment Award for “Demanding Transparency.”

Eighteen television and radio stations submitted 290 entries in the contest, which featured news and sports stories, features and reporting from 2015.

The PAPBA serves as the link between the AP and its member television and radio stations in Pennsylvania.

The Associated Press is a not-for-profit news cooperative representing 1,400 newspapers and 5,000 broadcast stations in the United States.

Local PAPBA contest winners:

Spot News Coverage: 1, Staff, WHYY, Philadelphia, “NewsWorks coverage of Amtrak Train 188 Crash”; 2, Staff, KDKA, Pittsburgh, “Homestead Fire”.

Continuing Coverage: 1, Staff, Radio Pennsylvania Network, “Amtrak 188”; 2, Staff, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Papal Visit”; 3, Staff, Radio Pennsylvania Network, “Is Kane Able?”.

Series: 1, Reid Frazier and Natasha Khan, WESA, Pittsburgh, “The Future of Coal by The Allegheny Front”; 2, Staff, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Keystone Crossroads: Pennsylvania Pensions, Is the Promise Broken?“; 3, Staff, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Keystone Crossroads: Locked out, Pennsylvania Has a Housing Problem“.

Investigative Reporting: 1, Susan Phillips, WHYY, Philadelphia, “StateImpact Pennsylvania: Unmapped, Unregulated Maze of Rural Pipelines Poses Hidden Risks“.

Enterprise Reporting: 1, Irina Zhorov, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Keystone Crossroads: A Federal Pilot Program Allows Local Housing Authorities More Autonomy“; 2, Laura Benshoff, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Syrian Refugees Find Suspicion, Hope in Allentown“; 3, Joe Hernandez, WHYY, Philadelphia, “South Jersey Towns Ask State to Investigate Verizon Over Phone, Internet Problems“.

Public Service: 1, Elana Gordon, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Surprise! When Your Hospital is In-Network but Your Doctor Isn’t“; 2, Brad Christman, Radio Pennsylvania Network, “Radio Pennsylvania Roundtable”; 3, Staff, WESA, Pittsburgh, “The Allegheny Front” .

Documentary: 1, Reid Frazier, WESA, Pittsburgh, “The Future of Coal by The Allegheny Front”; 2, Kevin McCorry and Shai Ben-Yaacov, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Turnaround: A Year Inside a Strawberry Mansion Elementary School“; 3, Mary Cummings-Jordan and Shai Ben-Yaacov, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Ancient Faith, Modern Lives“.

Feature: 1, Jeanette Woods and Aaron Moselle, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Philly Side Hustle Will be on Full Display During Papal Visit“; 2, Maiken Scott, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Beep, Beep, Beep – Hospital Alarms Sound Mostly Without Real Cause“; 3, Marielle Segarra, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Keystone Crossroads: Is it Fair for City Workers to Use Overtime to Spike Their Pensions?“.

Digital Presence: 1, WHYY, Philadelphia.

Sports Coverage: 1, Rick Becker, Radio Pennsylvania Network, “2015 PITT Football Preview”; 2, Brad Christman and Craig Rhodes, Radio Pennsylvania Network, “2015 Penn State Football Preview”.

Sports Feature: 1, Aaron Moselle, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Students Find Fitness, Fun in Pursuit of Mr. and Ms. Penn Bodybuilding Honors“; 2, Rick Becker, Radio Pennsylvania Network, “Radio PA’s Top 10 Sports Stories of 2015”.

Sportscast: 1, Rick Becker, Radio Pennsylvania Network, “Radio PA Sportscast, Dec. 2, 2015”; 2, Jeff Hathhorn, KDKA, Pittsburgh, “Afternoon News Sports”.

Use of Sound: 1, Elana Gordon, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Is Your Surgeon Listening to Metallica? Possibly“; 2, Irina Zhorov, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Keystone Crossroads: Romans, Booty and Sailors, All Part of the History of Pensions“; 3, Todd Bookman, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Sound it Out: The (Sometimes Creepy) History of The Talking Machine“.

Regularly Scheduled News or Sports Talk Program: 1, Staff, WHYY, Philadelphia, “The Pulse Goes to School“; 2, Paul Guggenheimer and Marcus Charleston, WESA, Pittsburgh, “Heroin’s Deadly Impact Hits Home in Southwestern PA”; 3, Staff, WHYY, Philadelphia, “Radio Times Ballot Talks: Advice for the Next Mayor – Poverty“.

Reporter/Anchor: 1, Maiken Scott, WHYY, Philadelphia, “The Pulse“; 2, Brad Christman, Radio Pennsylvania Network, “Radio PA’s Brad Christman”; 3, Kevin McCorry, WHYY, Philadelphia, “NewsWorks“.

Newscast: 1, Staff, WHYY, Philadelphia, “NewsWorks Tonight: Amtrak Crash, May 13, 2015”; 2, Brad Christman, Radio Pennsylvania Network, “Amtrak Derailment, May 13, 2015”.