A local radio station has shown it can compete with other major international media outlets in delivering the news, after picking up a prestigious newscast award recently.
CFAX 1070 radio station has won an Edward R. Murrow award for the best newscast in the small market radio category for its noon newscast from the U.S. arm of the Radio Television Digital News Association.
The team at CFAX regularly submits newscasts to the news association and has picked up several regional awards in the past, however, this is the first time the station has received international recognition, being compared to other news stations in the U.S.
“When I'd learned that we won it this time around, it was very surprising. I was really happy about it, but it was a bit of a shock,” said CFAX news director Ryan Price, adding the awards were announced at a gala in New York recently.
“This was pretty big for us. They announce the big radio and television awards and lo and behold, when they go to announce the best newscast, it's CFAX from Victoria.”
According to Price, the 15-minute newscast, which airs daily at noon, is a good combination of work from the entire newsroom. Co-anchored by James Gardner and Pamela McCall, the duo read the stories written or recorded by reporters, and receive the weather report from CTV's Astrid Braunschmidt.
In the close to 12 years Price has worked at the radio station, he's seen many changes in how it operates. Over the years, the company has changed owners. Most recently, with the retirement of well-known radio hosts and senior reporter Frank Stanford, the newsroom has undergone a generational shift, which has helped morph the newscast into what can be heard on radios around Vancouver Island today.
“Like everybody else, we're in a bit of a media climate that is more challenging that ever, we've also been pretty good at leveraging the advantages that we have in places like our talk show hosts. That's one of the reasons we've been able to keep being good and get awards,” said Price, adding the award is a reminder of how great the work is that the newsroom is putting out.