Channel 5 takes two first places in Nat'l Headliner Awards

Congrats to our Tennessee winners in the 2011 National Headliner Awards!

Jennifer Kraus and Bryan Staples of WTVF-Channel 5 took first place in the broadcast category for business and consumer reporting for their report "veteran support organization." And Channel 5's Ben Hall and Iain Montgomery took first place in the environmental reporting category for "Big Coal's Political Power."

More winners:

• Local interest column on variety of subjects, 2nd place, for (my friend and former co-worker) Wendi C. Thomas of the Commercial Appeal.
• Individual sports column, first place, went to Geoff Calkins of the Commercial Appeal.
• Education writing, 2nd place, went to (more friends and former co-workers) Jaime Sarrio and Brad Schrade of The Tennessean. 

See all the recipients here.

NewsChannel 5 wins the Pulitzer of TV news

My apologies to the Channel 5 folks for not having posted this earlier. Here's a snippet from the story on their site:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- WTVF-NewsChannel 5 has been awarded one of broadcast journalism's highest honors, the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, for the station's investigation of Nashville's General Sessions Court system, it was announced Thursday.

That exclusive investigation – "NewsChannel 5 Investigates: General Sessions Court" -- exposed judges and court employees abusing their positions, as well as a judicial system in which ticket fixing and political favoritism was rampant. The project was led by chief investigative reporter Phil Williams, along with photojournalist Bryan Staples and producer Kevin Wisniewski.

Channel 5 wins National Press Club Award

Jennifer Kraus, Bryan Staples, Kevin Wisniewski and Mike Rose of NewsChannel 5 won the National Press Club Award in the broadcast category for consumer journalism for "An Alarming Failure." From the NPC Web site:

Nashville’s WTVF News Channel 5 won the NPC’s Consumer Journalism Award broadcast category for “An Alarming Failure,” a ground-breaking examination of the differences between the popular ionization-type smoke detector and the photoelectric model in a smoky fire.  The stories resulted in legislation being introduced in Tennessee banning the installation of ionization smoke detectors in new homes.

NPT, WTVF take lead in regional Emmy count

Nashville Public Television and WTVF-Channel 5 were the biggest local winners at the Midsouth Regional Emmys given out last Saturday.

NPT took 11 Emmys, including for historical and cultural documentaries, and historic or cultural program/special. WTVF took five, including for news excellence, investigative report for "Stories of Abuse," and business/consumer report.

WKRN-Channel 2 took three Emmys, and WSMV-Channel 4, WZTV-Channel 17, Vanderbilt University News Service and the Renaissance Center took two each.

Read the complete list of winners here.

10 years of 'NewsChannel5 Investigates'

Take a look at its greatest hits at this link.

Channel 5 sold to New York media company

Landmark is selling the station to Bonten Media Group. No price disclosed.