Purdue's WBAA Radio news team wins 5 state awards
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – WBAA, public radio from Purdue University, has won five statewide awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.
WBAA won first place in the environment category with news producer Sam Klemet's "The Future of the Newport Chemical Depot." The report featured those for and against turning the former U.S. Army property 30 miles north of Terre Haute into an industrial park. The piece focused on the potential environmental impact on the 336-acre black soil prairie at that site.
Klemet also won second and third place in sports reporting for radio with "Big Ten Championship Game Helps to Heal a Hurting Conference" and "The State of College Football."
Mike Loizzo, WBAA news director, won two second-place awards for coverage of government and politics and coverage of children's issues. The winners included three pieces he produced during the 2011 Indiana General Assembly session and another on a children's art exhibit at the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette.
WBAA AM 920, Indiana's longest continuously operating radio station, is celebrating its 90th anniversary. In 1993, WBAA 101.3 FM began broadcasting. Both are available via online streaming at https://www.wbaa.org. The station airs 13 local, daily newscasts Monday through Friday. It has the only radio news staff in the Lafayette area, which is comprised of Loizzo, Klemet, news producer Kristin Malavenda and several Purdue students.
Writer: Jeanne Norberg, 765-494-2084; jnorberg@purdue.edu
Source: Purdue WBAA Public Radio, https://www.wbaa.org