Media Watch

The Weekly wins awards, the Suns have a new radio home in Tucson

WEEKLY REPRESENTED WELL IN ARIZONA NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION HONORS

The Arizona Newspaper Association named Jim Nintzel of the Tucson Weekly Arizona Journalist of the Year during its annual awards ceremony in mid-September. Rob O'Dell of the Arizona Republic received the organization's other Journalist of the Year accolade.

Meanwhile, Mike Christy of the Arizona Daily Star was one of two ANA Photographers of the Year. That was one of 14 awards representatives of the Star received.

The Weekly and a number of other area publications garnered numerous honors as well. The following list was lifted from Dan Gibson's post at The Range, the Tucson Weekly's website:

In the non-daily circulation greater than 10,000 category, Mari Herreras racked up a bunch of honors with two wins for Best News Story (1st for "Solitary Justice," 3rd for "Seeking Justice") plus a 2nd place for Best Investigative Reporting ("Fighting for Mom") and a shared 2nd place for Best News Feature Story with Chelo Grubb ("Drag Power"). Margaret Regan also took home a well-deserved 1st place honor for Best Column, Feature or Criticism for her arts coverage.

Other honors for the Weekly staff (past and present):

General Excellence, 1st place; Editorial Page Excellence, 1st place; Page Design Excellence, 1st place; Newspaper Online Site/Webpage, 1st place; Community Service/Journalistic Achievement, 1st place; Special Section, Newspaper Supplement or Magazine, 1st place; Reporting and Newswriting Excellence, 2nd place; Best News Story (Todd Miller, "Border Patrolled Youth"), 2nd place; and Best Sports Column, 3rd place. Wins for the Weekly's Tucson Local Media colleagues:

The Explorer, JD Fitzgerald, Best Feature Photo Layout, 1st place; The Explorer, Randy Metcalf, Best Feature Photo Layout, 2nd place; The Explorer, Newspaper Online Site/Webpage, 2nd place; The Explorer, JD Fitzgerald, Best News Photograph, 2nd place; The Explorer, General Excellence, 3rd place; The Explorer, Special Section, Newspaper Supplement or Magazine, 3rd place; The Explorer, Editorial Page Excellence, 3rd place; The Explorer, Best Use of Photography, 3rd place; The Explorer, Randy Metcalf, Best Sports Photograph, 3rd place; and The Explorer, Randy Metcalf, Best Feature Photograph, 3rd place

AZPM LANDS NUMEROUS ROCKY MOUNTAIN EMMY NOMINATIONS

Arizona Public Media garnered a company-record 23 regional television Emmy nominations this year.

"AZPM staff were again recognized with more Emmy® nominations than any other station in Tucson and more than any other public broadcaster in the region," said AZPM GM Jack Gibson in a press release. "With 23 program/story nominations, and with 36 staff members nominated, this is the best performance in AZPM's history."

KGUN TV 9 was well represented in the nomination process and KVOA TV 4 garnered a nod in the best newscast category.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony in Scottsdale Saturday, Oct. 18.

KEVT ADDS SUNS TO SPORTS LINEUP

Ever the opportunist, KEVT AM 1210 has laid claim as the new Tucson home of Phoenix Suns radio broadcasts. It accounts for the third Phoenix-based sports team to KEVT's growing roster.

Station manager Jim Parisi got the ball rolling a couple months ago when he agreed to carry ASU football and men's basketball broadcasts. That was an easy get since no other station in the market had carried Sun Devils games for a number of years. But then he benefited from a set of circumstances that allowed KEVT to land the Arizona Cardinals. Long-time Tucson affiliate KCUB 1290 had to abandon the in-state NFL team this year because its owner, Cumulus Broadcasting, had recently acquired the Westwood One Radio Networks. That meant Cumulus-owned stations got first dibs to the multitude of Westwood One games.

At the time it seemed likely ESPN affiliate KFFN AM 1490/FM 104.9 would snatch the Cardinals, but when that didn't happen, likely as a result of rigid restrictions set forth by the station's contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, that left the Cardinals without a home. That is, until Parisi stepped in and agreed to carry the broadcasts on 1210.

For a number of years, KFFN had carried the Suns, but decided to sever that relationship a couple weeks ago.

"After careful thought it just didn't make sense for our station (albeit a sports station) to carry the games," said Journal Tucson Radio GM Leon Clark. "Research has shown that the Tucson audience didn't have a strong affinity to or for the team. I would like to see what we can do on a more localized basis to serve our sports community."

Since announcing the formation of his radio venture a few months ago, Parisi has aggressively formulated one of the more interesting stations in the market. Five hosts provide content exclusive to KEVT (four are local, one broadcasts from Rhode Island), and now he has deals to carry three sports teams abandoned or ignored by other local radio signals, highlighted by the undefeated Arizona Cardinals, a Suns team that appears to be improving, and an ASU football team fresh off a 35-point loss shellacking at the hands of UCLA.

Eh, so you can't win 'em all. By virtue of glitches in their respective systems, it is, however, somewhat entertaining to listen to KEVT run promos for the Dan Patrick Show, syndicated on Fox Sports but broadcast locally on KCUB, while KCUB runs promos still calling itself the Home of the Cardinals.

What's a sports format without the occasional trade?