Central Florida News 13 took home three awards from the Florida Associated Press Broadcasters competition on Saturday. Chief met Jeff Day won first place for best weathercast for his coverage of Tropical Storm Fay. Scott Fais won second place for best short light feature about Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon. And the station took second place for best Web site. If there were other O-Town winners, just let me know. The AP has not updated its Web site with the results of the awards.

Meanwhile, WESH reporter Greg Fox recently picked his his second consecutive USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism in the category of Individual Achievement at a Local Station. According to the judges, Fox was recognized for excellent journalistic analysis and helping voters evaluate what candidates said in a ‘Truth Test’ series. It was also WESH parent Hearst-Argyle’s fifth consecutive Cronkite award.

And, Hearst-Argyle also won a Peabody Award from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism for its Commitment 2008 election and issues series. The honor recognizes the work of WESH as well as other Hearst-Argyle stations in covering the 2008 elections. It was H-A’s fifth Peabody in the past seven years — included in that group was the 2003 award WESH won for the “Building Homes, Building Problems” series looking at Florida’s homebuilding practices. The Peabody awards will be presented on May 18 in New York.

Continue reading →