WDET-FM Wins National Murrow Award
On August 17, The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTNDA) announced that Wayne State University’s WDET-FM (Detroit) is the recipient of a 2021 national Edward R. Murrow Award. The station won in the Excellence in Innovation category in Large Market Radio for its “COVID Diaries: Stories of Resilience” project. The COVID Diaries was presented in partnership with Documenting Detroit, commissioning six artists to create a multimedia introspective that taps into our shared experience of the novel coronavirus.
WDET-FM joined more than 100 media outlets and news organizations recognized for outstanding work in digital, radio and television journalism in technical and editorial categories.
“A core pillar of RTDNA is celebrating the best in journalism,” RTDNA Executive Director Dan Shelley says. “The past 18 months have been some of the most challenging in the history of our profession, and these recipients, among thousands of other journalists, clearly fulfilled their obligations to serve the public.”
Also winning a national Murrow was Michigan State University in the Small Digital News Organization category for Excellence in Sound with Protest & Poetry.
A complete list of national winners is available here.
As seen previously in the MAB Newsletter, in May the RTNDA announced the regional winners of the 2021 Murrow Awards with six Michigan stations winning 11 awards:
| Small Market Radio | Large Market Television |
| Excellence in Sound Shutdown Produces Two Very Different Musical Projects WMUK Kalamazoo, MI | Breaking News Coverage 2020 Grand Rapids Riots WOOD TV Grand Rapids, MI |
| Feature Reporting Sanford Residents Hope for Federal Aid after Devastating Flood WCMU Public Media Mount Pleasant, MI | News Series An Epidemic During a Pandemic WXYZ-TV Detroit, MI |
| Large Market Radio | |
| Breaking News Coverage Midland floods after Dams Give Way Michigan Radio Ann Arbor, MI | Hard News Hey, Why Are You Still Out? Fear And Duty Collide for Concerned Detroiters WDET Detroit, MI |
| Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Reasonable and Necessary? The Night Detroit Police Justified Violence WDET Detroit, MI | Investigative Reporting “It’s still not right.” An investigation into Lakeside Academy Michigan Radio Ann Arbor, MI |
| Excellence in Innovation COVID Diaries WDET and Documenting Detroit Detroit, MI | News Series Chronicling COVID in Michigan Michigan Radio Ann Arbor, MI |
| Feature Reporting An unplanned march. An unlikely leader. And, for One Night at least, a Peaceful Resolution Michigan Radio Ann Arbor, MI |