RICHMOND, Va. -- WTVR CBS 6 was honored with the station's third National Edward R. Murrow Award in four years this week.
WTVR won in the small-market television category of News Series for “The Serial Snipers: 20 Years Later” when the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) announced the honors Tuesday.
The winning work by Executive Producer Mike Bergazzi, Reporter Jon Burkett, Senior Reporter Wayne Covil and Assistant Chief Photographer Curtis Akers revisited a string of sniper-style shootings across Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. in the fall of 2002.
At the end of the nearly month-long rampage, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo killed 10 people and injured three more. While many parts of the sniper investigation played out in the public eye, there were behind-the-scenes details not released.
Over the course of several weeks, the CBS 6 team investigated and shared previously untold accounts from people tasked with protecting Central Virginia and who helped crack this case 20 years ago.
Additionally, WTVR's Scripps sister station, KTVQ in Billings, Montana, won a National Murrow Award in the small-market television category of Hard News for “Surviving the Aftermath” — coverage that documented the devastation and rebuild efforts across Montana following 2022’s historic flooding in Yellowstone National Park.
“This prestigious recognition reinforces local television’s incomparable role in communities across the country,” Scripps Vice President of Local Media Dean Littleton said. “The Scripps teams in Billings and Richmond used their depth of knowledge about their communities and spent weeks talking to people, building relationships and deeply researching the lesser-known layers to events that have had lasting impact on their ways of life.”
The Murrow Awards are among the most prestigious accolades in the news industry, celebrating local and national journalism that aligns with the RTDNA Code of Ethics, showcases technical prowess and underscores the significance and influence of journalism as a community service.
The honored work echoes the excellence that Edward R. Murrow established as the gold standard in broadcast news.
WTVR CBS 6 also won National Murrow Awards for Sports Reporting in 2022 and Overall Excellence in 2020.
Additionally, the South's First Television Station received nine Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards this year as well as bringing home 19 awards, including the the prestigious Overall Excellence honor, from the Capital Emmys.
WTVR CBS 6 was named Outstanding News Operation of the Virginias for the second year in a row at the 2023 Associated Press Broadcasters Awards and received five first-place and two runner-up wins from the Virginia Association of Broadcasters.
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