KABC honored with 4 Regional Murrow Awards for breaking news, feature stories

The 2020 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards honors KABC-TV Los Angeles with four honors including Overall Excellence Award.

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Friday, May 15, 2020
Protecting the future of monarch butterflies
As David Ono's daughter Kaia demonstrates, anyone can play a role in protecting the monarch butterfly, a majestic but diminishing species that migrates through California.

GLENDALE (KABC) -- KABC-TV has been awarded four 2020 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards by the Radio Television Digital News Association for news coverage in 2019.

The station received awards for Overall Excellence, Breaking News Coverage, Excellence in Video and Best Newscast.

The Regional Murrow Awards are among the most prestigious in broadcast and digital news, and recognize the work of the highest quality produced by radio, television and digital news organizations around the world.

KABC's four regional winning entries will advance to the National Murrow Award competition, with national winners announced in June.

"I'm so proud of our teams at ABC7 for being recognized by the Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for two years in a row, and now receiving more accolades this year across four categories is exceptional," said Cheryl Fair, president and general manager of KABC-TV.

"KABC is committed to delivering the most impactful stories to our audiences across all platforms, and the investments in community journalism focused on expanding hyperlocal reporting and data-driven investigative storytelling have been instrumental."

Station vice president Rob Elmore added: "The Regional Murrow Award is one of the most esteemed awards given by the Radio Television Digital News Association. Receiving the Overall Excellence Award truly exemplifies the team's dedication to groundbreaking reporting in service of our viewers."

KABC's four award-winning categories for 2019 news coverage include the following:

  • Overall Excellence Award for breaking news coverage, investigative reporting, data journalism, community journalism.
  • Breaking News Coverage for a special edition of Eyewitness News coverage, "Easy/Hill Fires and Red Flag Warning/High Winds," where reporters were on the scene covering real-time devastation of the Easy Fire that spread across Ventura County, endangering communities, animals and commuters, and threatened the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
  • Best Newscast - The 5 p.m. news for the Nov. 14, 2019, coverage of the Saugus High School shooting, where a 16-year-old high school student killed two fellow students and injured others on campus, before taking his own life.
  • Excellence in Video for "The Monarch," a touching narrated video featuring Eyewitness News anchor David Ono's daughter, Kaia. She is taking steps to preserve the monarch butterfly, which is being negatively impacted due to global warming and the pesticides tragically killing them and harming their natural environment.