Portland Radio Project

EDWARD R MURROW AWARDS

Awards recognize the PRP.fm website and Community Voices series

Portland, Ore. – Just six months after its launch, Portland Radio Project has received two of the highest honors bestowed on electronic news organizations, the Edward R. Murrow Award. Presented annually by the Radio Television Digital News Association, RTDNA, the Edward R. Murrow Awards have recognized outstanding achievements in electronic journalism since 1971.

Edward R. Murrow Awards

PRP.fm was honored for the best website and news series, for its Community Voices public service series, among Region 1 small online news organizations with 999,999 or fewer unique visitors per month. RTDNA’s Region 1 includes Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. This is the first year for awards in the online news organization category.

“We are absolutely thrilled with this recognition,” says Rebecca Webb, PRP’s founder, and news director. “The Edward R. Murrow awards are as good as it gets; that we would receive two in our first year of streaming is just exhilarating. It reinforces that we are doing what we set out to do: produce excellent local content that reconnects radio with the Portland community.”

Guidelines for the RTDNA’s website category stipulate that “the site should be of practical use to the general public and maximize online technologies to inform and educate the public and enhance public debate about important daily issues.” PRP’s website connects visitors to news, music, and culture in real time, says Webb. “Using the latest HTML and streaming technology, Portland Radio Project takes local to a new level,” she says. “Our audience stays current on events, from weather to politics, while also hearing new songs from local artists. And, they can interact with live announcers on the stream via an activity feed.”

PRP’s News Series Award recognizes its ongoing Community Voices public service series, which profiles local nonprofits whose work contributes to Portland’s quality of life. The segments submitted for the award focused on the Portland Youth Philharmonic, the Portland Alano Club, Meals on Wheels People, Thomas Edison High School and the Portland Rescue Mission.

“Community Voices is at the core of our mission,” says Webb. “This special coverage, in which experienced journalists guide recent college graduates, restores important public service coverage – much of which was lost to radio ownership consolidation. We give voice to causes that matter in Portland.”

Created by a team of established local radio professionals, PRP.fm streams a commercial-free mix of rock/folk/blues with quality news and a commitment to raising awareness for local causes and non-profits. It was recently granted a low-power FM license, which it will share with the Q Center at FM 99.1 beginning sometime this summer.

According to the RTDNA website, Edward R. Murrow Award recipients demonstrate the spirit of excellence that Murrow, a longtime radio and television broadcaster who died in 1965, set as a standard for the profession of electronic journalism.

A complete list of 2014 Edward R. Murrow Awards is posted at www.rtdna.org.

For more information on Portland Radio Project’s vision and team, visit www.prp.fm or if you’re interested in having your local non-profit featured in a Community Voices public service series, email communityvoices@prp.fm