The New Mexico Broadcasters Association (NMBA) announced the winners of the association’s Excellence in Broadcasting Awards on August 6, 2021. KRWG Public Media picked up nine awards, including the Station of the Year award for KRWG-FM, 90.7.
The awards reflect the outstanding achievement of broadcasters during 2020 and the unprecedented events of the year.
“To be recognized for the achievements during such a challenging year is testament of the dedication of our team members,” says Adrian Velarde, University Broadcasting General Manager, “KRWG Public Media broadcasts 24-hours a day; during this pandemic time, we had to make adjustments with our team to ensure their health and safety while keeping us on the air.”
Winning entries demonstrate the exceptional, wide-ranging news coverage and public information, as well as entertaining content, creative production, and new programming ideas for a stay-at-home audience. The winning entries represent innovation and originality across New Mexico's four radio markets and one television market.
“Innovation was certainly a key factor in our ability to bring about the special programming that was needed to keep our audience informed of the constant changing news (regarding COVID),” says Fred Martino, KRWG Public Media Director of Content, “In addition, we produced 14 televised election forums, a record for the station.”
KRWG-TV was recognized with an impressive election coverage award in the statewide television category.
“We're proud of the hard work by a small staff of content producers, the production team, and broadcast engineers to be recognized during an unprecedented time,” adds Martino.
Here is the list of awards for KRWG Public Media:
Election Coverage KRWG-TV
KRWG News Election 2020 Coverage
Fred Martino, Producer/Anchor; Christian Valle, Producer/Director; Joe Widmer, Co-Producer
Breaking News KRWG-FM
Police Shooting KC Counts, Producer/Anchor
Complete Newscast Station KRWG-FM
4:44pm KRWG-FM newscast;
KC Counts, Producer/Anchor
Continuing Coverage KRWG-FM
KRWG-FM COVID-19 coverage KC Counts, Producer/Anchor
Newscaster KRWG-FM
KC Counts, All Things Considered Anchor
Specialty Show KRWG-FM
Voice Of The Public: Coronavirus Update
Fred Martino, Director of Content
Sports Show or Interview KRWG-FM
Voice of the Public: NMSU Aggies
KC Counts, Producer/Anchor
Talk Show or Interview KRWG-FM
Frontline: The Choice 2020
Fred Martino, Director of Content
Station of the Year KRWG-FM
KRWG Public Media Las Cruces, NM