KAZU is proud to announce it has won four Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for work in 2022, in the categories of Breaking News, Excellence in Sound, Excellence in Writing, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Each year, the Radio Television Digital News Association honors the work of radio, television and digital news outlets across the country with these awards. Regional Murrow Award winners are automatically considered for a National Murrow Award.
Breaking News
When a rare mid-winter fire broke out in the Big Sur region along California’s central coast, KAZU’s news team reported on site, providing local residents with up-to-the-minute information about evacuations, closures, and the fire itself. Reporters in the field gathered sound and interviews from local residents for this early story — the first of many in our days-long coverage of the Colorado fire. The event challenged the notion of a “fire season” in California.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
The African American Theater Arts Troupe creates community for students of color By: Doug McKnight
Less than 5% of the students at the University of California, Santa Cruz are Black. With the help of a Black theater professor, some of the students found a community through the African American Theater Arts Troupe. The students present plays by Black playwrights, and visit underserved high schools across the community to share their personal stories of college life.
Excellence in Sound
Santa Cruz County's El Sistema is a finalist for the prestigious Lewis Prize for Music
By: Scott Cohn
At Radcliff Elementary School in Watsonville, California, 97% of students come from economically disadvantaged homes. El Sistema is a unique after-school music program in the Watsonville area that is doing much more than teaching students notes and scales. In 2022, El Sistema was named a finalist for a $500,000 national music prize, inspiring KAZU to produce this profile.
Excellence in Writing
The Santa Cruz corpse flower…resurrected! By: Jerimiah Oetting
Most flowers evolved a sweet smell to attract pollinators like bees and butterflies. But some, like the “corpse flower” growing in Santa Cruz, California, developed a bit of a different strategy. Its massive flower blooms only once a decade, and reeks of rotting meat. Crowds in Santa Cruz waited with bated breath to catch a glimpse — and a whiff — of this evolutionary marvel, only to hear botanists pronounce it dead. But, was it?
