KCETLink Wins Four Golden Mike Awards

Two awards honor SoCal Connected, while two recognize transmedia arts and culture initiative Artbound.

Burbank, CA,-January 19, 2013 - KCETLink, the newly formed national independent public media organization formed by the merger between KCET and Link Media, is pleased to announce that it has been honored with four Golden Mike Awards in division A by the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California (RTNA).

SoCal Connected, KCETs hard-hitting nightly news program, garnered two awards including Best News Public Affairs Program and Best Investigative Reporting. In addition, KCETs new transmedia cultural journalism initiative Artbound, received two awards for Best Entertainment Reporting and Best Internet News Reporting.

Formally announced at the awards ceremony on Jan. 19, 2013, the Golden Mike Awards recognize excellence in broadcast journalism. Last year, SoCal Connected received four Golden Mikes. Artbound launched in May 2012.

Were proud to be honored by Golden Mike Awards for a fifth season in a row, said Bret Marcus, Executive Producer of SoCal Connected. SoCal Connected is making a difference in our community by providing in-depth reporting on news that matters to our viewers. We are thankful to be recognized for our efforts.

Added Juan Devis, executive producer for Artbound: We are happy to be recognized for our unique approach to arts reporting. In todays participatory culture, Artbound has created new, interconnected ways to explore and engage with the arts and culture of southern California where our audience becomes programmers, curators and critics.

Below is a complete list of KCETLinks 2013 Golden Mike Award wins, along with links to segments, descriptions and names of the individual winners in each category:

SOCAL CONNECTED

Best News Public Affairs Program

SoCal Connected: Ticket to Space

SoCal Connected took a look at how Southern California has become a hub of space exploration, with the highest concentration of private space travel companies in the world located in the Mojave Desert. Plus, the report covered how the California Science Center won the title to the Space Shuttle Endeavor. 2012 marks the beginning of a new frontier for space education in Los Angeles, as the Space Shuttle Endeavor embarks on its final journey to the California Science Center. Finally, the show looked at how everyday travel is still a luxury for many.

Bret Marcus, Executive Producer; Justine Schmidt, Co-Executive Producer; Val Zavala, Anchor; Rick Wilkinson, Producer; Dina Demetrius, Producer; Vince Gonzales, Correspondent; Jennifer London, Correspondent; Brian Unger, Commentator; Lata Pandya, Associate Producer; Debra Greene, Associate Producer; Alberto Arce, Editor, Michael Bloecher, Editor; Kat Keeney, Broadcast Producer; Ashley Crary, Senior Producer

Best Investigative Reporting

SoCal Connected: Show Me the Money: HACLA Investigation Compilation

SoCal Connected revealed the huge salary and lavish spending of the Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles (HACLA) Executive Director Rudy Montiel during a year-long investigation. The reports contributed to his firing and the firing of two commissioners. Producers battled HACLA for access to thousands of pages of expense reports and credit card receipts of the executive staff revealing $100,000 spent on employee incentives and $2,000 dinner tabs.

Bret Marcus, Executive Producer; Justine Schmidt, Co-Executive Producer; Karen Foshay, Producer; Rocio Zamora, Producer; Laurel Erickson, Correspondent; Miguel Contreras, Associate Producer; Alberto Arce, Editor; Robert Vega, Graphics; Ashley Crary, Senior Producer; Tom Tanquary & Kenny Gioseffi, Videographers; Brian Frank, New Media Editor; Linda Burns, New Media Producer.

ARTBOUND

Best Entertainment Reporting

Artbound Episode One

Artbound explores the arts and culture of Southern California through articles, essays, and thinkpieces by more than 30 contributors in 11 counties. These correspondents cover cultural happenings in the communities where they live, providing an inside look at art across the region. Then the Artbound audience votes online for an article to be made into a short online video. Those videos are then assembled into a broadcast television show. Episode Ones mini-documentary compilation covered Date Farmers: Desert Detritus Becomes Chicano Pop Art (Riverside County); Hijabistas: Inside the World of Muslim American Fashion (Orange County); Jackrabbit Homestead (San Bernardino County); and Steel Modern: A History of Steel Houses in Palm Springs (Riverside County). The episode also featured interviews with each of the columnists on which the videos were based, including Drew Tewksbury, Lilledeshan Bose, Kim Stringfellow and Patrick McGrew. In addition, a segment titled Hear and Now: Cut Chemist featured the music of renowned DJ, Cut Chemist.

Executive Producer: Juan Devis; Producer: Bruce Dickson; Co-Producers: Drew Tewksbury / Justin Cram; Editor: Alex Chu/Chris Donlon

Best Internet News Reporting

Artbound The Date Farmers

The Coachella Valley, located near the halfway point between Los Angeles and Phoenix, is home to an artistic duo, the Date Farmers, whose art is influenced by the collision of cultures that make up the region. Armando Lerma and Carlos Ramirez create iconoclastic multi-dimensional pieces utilizing pedestrian materials, such as house paint, fliers, stickers and cardboard to build assemblage pieces that they overlay with their own hand-drawn images. The work is multifaceted and integrates everything from Catholicism and Native American mysticism to commercialism and pop culture.

Based on a column by Drew Tewksbury; Executive Producer: Juan Devis; Director, Producer, D.P.: Bruce Dickson; Editors: Chris Donlon & Lex Sadasivan

About SoCal Connected

SoCal Connected, winner of the Peabody and two duPont-Columbia awards, 17 E

LINK:	http://www.kcet.org/about/pressroom/press-releases/kcetlink-wins-four-...
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