An award winning weekend for APR news

The Alabama Public Radio news team was nationally honored, not once but twice, over the weekend for excellence in journalism. News Director Pat Duggins, and reporters Ryan Vasquez, Maggie Martin, and Stan Ingold received the national Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists for Best Documentary for the program “Winds of Change,” which examined the long-term impact of the tornadoes that struck Alabama on April 27, 2011. Duggins (shown here with NPR’s Ina Jaffe and Jacki Lyden) represented the team at the SPJ awards event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The Sigma Delta Chi’s are the second oldest awards for journalism in the nation, with only the Pulitzer having a longer history. Other award recipients at the event included NBC and CBS network television, NPR, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. APR was further honored Saturday at the national PRNDI awards, which are bestowed by the group Public Radio News Directors, Incorporated at their annual conference. APR reporter Stan Ingold received first place for Best Soft Radio feature for his story “Holy Smoke!,” which is about a business in south Alabama which packs the cremated remains of hunters into pistol rounds and shot gun shells. APR news has won fourteen journalism awards so far this year. The team is highly flattered by this recognition from the industry, which is made possible by the generous support of the University of Alabama, and APR’s listeners and underwriters.