GPB News Wins Georgia Associated Press Media Editors Top Honor for Radio - The Pacemaker Award

GPB News won a total of 17 Georgia Associated Press Media Editors Awards, including the prestigious Pacemaker Award, the top award for radio, during the awards banquet Saturday, June 24 in Atlanta. In addition to the Pacemaker Award, GPB's 16 category wins topped all other radio stations in Georgia.

The Associated Press is a not-for-profit news cooperative representing 1,400 newspapers and 5,000 broadcast stations in the United States. Twenty newspapers, television and radio stations submitted 495 entries in the contest, which featured news and sports stories from 2016.

Below is the list of GPB News winners, with links to stories:

1st Place Best Staff Coverage — Hurricane Matthew Coverage (link: http://gpbnews.org/term/hurricane-matthew)

1st Place Feature Reporting — The Girls of Leesburg Stockade by Bradley George and Grant Blankenship (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/girls-leesburg-stockade)

1st Place Best Investigative Reporting – Fannin Focus First Amendment by Sean Powers (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/newspaper-publisher-says-first-amendment-rights-violated-vows-sue)

1st Place Best Sports Feature Reporting — Teen Honors Negro League Players by Leah Fleming (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/georgia-teen-honors-negro-league-players)

1st Place Best Multiplatform of a Single Story – The Girls of Leesburg Stockade by Bradley George and Grant Blankenship (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/girls-leesburg-stockade)

2nd Place Best Documentary or News Special Programming — On Second Thought: Live from the CDC (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/second-thought-friday-july-8-2016).

2nd Place Feature Reporting — Vets Frustrated with VA Turn to Farming by Sean Powers (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/vets-frustrated-va-turn-farming)

2nd Place Best Specialized Reporting — Grant Blankenship for coverage of Education

2nd place Best Sports Feature Reporting – Black Rodeos by Emily Jones (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/black-rodeos-aim-attract-educate-audiences-color)

2nd Place Best Use of Sound – Fire in the Mountains: Georgia Fights Wildfires as Blazes Continues by Sam Whitehead and Grant Blankenship (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/fire-mountains-georgia-fights-wildfires-blazes-continue)

3rd Place Best Specialized Reporting — Michael Caputo for coverage of Medicine and Health Care

3rd Place Best Series Reporting — Crime, Cops and Communities by Grant Blankenship, Gabrielle Ware, and Ezra Morris (link: http://gpbnews.org/term/crime-cops-community)

3rd Place Best Staff Coverage —

Election 2016 (links: http://gpbnews.org/term/election-night;

http://gpbnews.org/term/election-2016

3rd Place Best Sports Feature Reporting – Tennis Serves up Dollars for Macon by Leah Fleming (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/tennis-serving-big-dollars-cities-macon-0)

3rd Place Best Use of Sound – Atlanta’s Most Unusual Breakfast by Jenny Ament and Ezra Morris (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/atlantas-most-unusual-breakfast)

3rd Place Best Website – http://gpbnews.org/

The Georgia Associated Press Media Awards are the latest honors received by GPB News. Other recent wins include the Public Radio News Directors Inc. (PRNDI) award for Best Soft Feature Reporting — The Girls of Leesburg Stockade by Bradley George and Grant Blankenship (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/girls-leesburg-stockade). This story was also honored with the Society of Professional Journalist Green Eyeshade Award for 1st Place Feature Reporting.

Additionally, GPB won the Society’s 2nd Place Public Service in Radio Journalism — Crime, Cops and Communities by Grant Blankenship, Gabrielle Ware, and Ezra Morris (link: http://gpbnews.org/term/crime-cops-community).

Miranda Fulmore (University of Alabama) won 2nd place Best Student News Reporter for New Whitenose Syndrome Treatment Might Be a Boon for Bats (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/new-white-nose-syndrome-treatment-might-be-boon-bats): Following Bust, What Happens to Seized Drugs and Money? (link: https://digitalnews.ua.edu/2015/12/following-bust-what-happens-to-seized-drugs-and-money/) ; and Five Arrested at Fox Theatre Trump Event (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/five-arrested-fox-theatre-trump-event).

GPB was also recently recognized in the Atlanta Press Club Awards of Excellence for

Best Use of Sound – Sweet Tea: A History of the ‘Nectar of the South’ by Sean Powers (link: http://gpbnews.org/post/sweet-tea-history-nectar-south)

ABOUT GPB:

As one of the largest PBS stations in the nation, Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB Media), has been creating content worth sharing for over 50 years. With nine television stations, 18 radio stations and a multi-faceted web presence, GPB strives to educate, entertain and enrich the lives of our viewers and listeners with programming that includes statewide radio news, current affairs, high school sports, educational resources for teachers and students and enlightening programs about our state like Georgia Outdoors and Georgia Traveler.