KCLU receives 6 AP and Murrow awards
News director is Reporter of the Year for 10th time
News director Lance Orozco and weekend anchor Debra Green took home four awards from the AP Television and Radio Association during a ceremony at the Universal Hilton.
(UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – June 14, 2016) Local National Public Radio affiliate KCLU received six regional awards from the Associated Press and the Radio Television Digital News Association, including news director Lance Orozco’s 10th Pat Davis Reporter of the Year honor.
KCLU took home four awards from the AP Television and Radio Association during a ceremony at the Universal Hilton in Universal City on Saturday. The station competed in Division B against stations with five or fewer staff members in the 13 Western states.
Orozco and weekend anchor Debra Green received the award for Best Live News Coverage for their reporting on Ventura County’s Solimar brush fire, which closed Highway 101 and threatened homes before it was contained. In addition to collecting his latest Reporter of the Year award, Orozco received the Best Radio Sports Reporting award for his story on the Cowboys and Rams training together in Oxnard last summer. KCLU was honored for Best Radio Station Website.
KCLU also received two 2016 Edward R. Murrow Awards from the RTDNA in the small market radio division for stations in California, Guam, Hawaii and Nevada. Orozco was honored for Best Breaking News Coverage for the 2015 Santa Barbara County oil spill and Best Newswriting for “Food Fun at the Fair,” a whimsical look at the unusual tastes at the Ventura County Fair.
In April, Linda and Dennis Fenton of Westlake Village donated $1 million for an endowment to support and expand the news department. KCLU members provide the financial resources needed to produce award-winning news focused on the tri-county region. About 65 percent of the budget comes from listener pledges and another 15 percent comes from business sponsors. Grants cover the remaining portion.
The station provides NPR and local news programming in Ventura County at 88.3 FM, Santa Barbara County at 102.3 FM and 1340 AM, Santa Maria at 89.7 FM, San Luis Obispo at 92.1 FM, and online at kclu.org. The station is a community service of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.