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WKSU was honored by the Press Club of Cleveland with nine Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards at a ceremony on June 5 at the House of Blues in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The station won four first-place and the best-in-show award for Best Newscast, which WKSU staff received for the second year in a row. Award entries were judged by a panel of journalism professionals from press clubs and news publications across the country.

WKSU winners of 2015 Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards from the Press Club of Cleveland are:

• Best in Show – Radio Newscast, Host/Producers Jeff St. Clair and Vivian Goodman for “WKSU’s All Things Considered.”
  The submitted newscasts captured stories surrounding the Republican National Convention’s decision to choose Cleveland for its next presidential convention and the news that an Ebola-infected nurse had visited the Akron area.  
• First Place – Radio News, Reporter/Producer Tim Rudell for “Will the Ohio River carry fracking wastewater?”
  Fracking drillers are looking for new ways to dump their leftovers. That may lead to boats carrying toxic waste close to water processing plants for many communities, including Wheeling, West Virginia.  
• First Place – Ongoing Coverage, News Staff for “Ebola visits Ohio.”
  Rational and irrational fears of the deadly Ebola virus were suddenly and unexpectedly brought home when a nurse from Dallas visited the Akron area and then was diagnosed with the disease.     
• First Place – Public Service, Amanda Rabinowitz for “Big Trouble in a Small Town.”
  Judges said: This series explores heroin addiction from several angles, providing listeners with insight into what it means to have a loved one addicted to heroin, to live in a town harmed by heroin, to be a person struggling with heroin addiction … a compelling and well-written series.
• First Place – In-Depth Coverage, Rabinowitz for “Cleveland welcomes the International Gay Games.”
  Coverage of the Gay Games from many different angles – the obvious sport-related topics to social issues arising from bringing a diverse group to culturally conservative Northeast Ohio.
• Second Place – Radio News Website, Director for IT and Engineering Chuck Poulton for “WKSU.org.”
• Second Place – Radio News, Reporter/Producer M.L. Schultze for “Will Northeast Ohio house a key piece of the U.S. missile defense shield?”
• Second Place – Human Interest, Schultze for “Ida McKinley’s tiara comes home, with the help of ‘Pawn Stars.’”
• Third Place – Human Interest, Reporter/Producer Kabir Bhatia for “Cleveland’s League Park is alive again after 74 years.”

Additionally, WKSU Walt Clarke Fellow Michael Bratton took home a first-place prize for Best TV News Story: 4 Year School for a story aired on �鶹ӰԺ’s TV2. 

The Ohio Excellence in Journalism contest is a statewide competition for the best in print, broadcast and digital journalism. More than 900 entries were submitted for consideration.

WKSU is an award-winning public radio station and service of �鶹ӰԺ that broadcasts to 22 counties throughout Northeast Ohio from the station’s primary signal at 89.7. WKSU content also can be heard over WKRW 89.3 (Wooster), WKRJ 91.5 (Dover/New Philadelphia), WKSV 89.1 (Thompson), WNRK 90.7 (Norwalk) and W239AZ 95.7 (Ashland). The station adds WKSU-2 Folk Alley, WKSU-3 The Classical Channel and WKSU-4 The News Channel over HD Radio and as streaming audio at .

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Media Contact:
Ann VerWiebe, verwiebe@wksu.org, 330-672-9153