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KCLU, the local National Public Radio station for Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, was
News Director Lance Orozco
the biggest winner among radio and TV stations in the two counties for the 10th year in a row at the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California’s 61st Annual Golden Mike Awards in Universal City.
KCLU received five awards for excellence in broadcast journalism at the ceremony on Saturday. The nonprofit RTNA of Southern California represents broadcast newsrooms stretching from San Luis Obispo and Bakersfield to the Mexican border.
John North, a special projects reporter for KCLU, and editor Priscilla Rodriguez won the only Golden Mike awarded to small and large stations for Best Radio Documentary for “Not in My Backyard,” which examined paroled sexual offenders living in the community and the problems with tracking them.
KCLU’s other four awards came in the Division B category for small radio stations. Program Director Jim Rondeau and News Director Lance Orozco won the Best Live Coverage of a News Story award for their story on last year’s Simi Valley industrial park explosion, which killed one person and forced hundreds of evacuations.
Orozco also won three other Golden Mikes for his stories. “The Oldest Dodger,” a feature on an Oxnard man who’s the oldest living Major League Baseball player, was honored for Best Sports Reporting. Orozco’s segment on a drought-resistant demonstration garden in Camarillo took the Best Business and Consumer Reporting award. And his series of in-depth reports on local issues in last year’s election was named Best News Public Affairs Program.
Also at the ceremony, Steve Edwards of KTTV presented Regis Philbin, who just announced he would retire from “Live with Regis and Kelly” this year, with the organization’s first Broadcast Legend Award. Longtime Los Angeles television anchor Kelly Lange and Spanish language anchor Jose A. Rondstadt received Lifetime Achievement Awards.
KCLU provides NPR and local news programming to Ventura County at 88.3 FM, and Santa Barbara County at 102.3 FM and 1340 AM. Listeners around the world can also tune in live or hear archived stories at http://www.kclu.org. The station is a community service of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.