TSU Chair Wins Two Prestigious Edward R. Murrow Awards

NASHVILLE, Tenn.  (TSU News Service) – The Radio Television Digital News Association has announced that a communications professor at Tennessee State University has won two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in electronic journalism.

Dr. Terry Likes, Chair of the Department of Communications and Professor of Multimedia Journalism, won the awards in two separate categories, including Audio News Documentary—“In Our Memory, the Soundtrack to News:  How News Events Shape Music,” and Audio Sports Reporting, “We Will Rock You: The Branding of Sports Music.”

Both programs aired on the Tennessee Radio Network.

“It is an honor to represent TSU in this regard and to continue to enhance my reporting skills for the benefit of our students,” said Dr. Likes. “It helps in the classroom when students can see professors remain active in the industry, achieve at a high level.  This helps us encourage students to seek excellence in their own student competitions, as TSU students are doing with evidence of tremendous recent success including 17 Southeast Journalism Conference awards and 9 Tennessee Associated Press student awards this year alone.”

These awards mark the seventh and eighth regional Murrow Award received by Dr. Likes having won Murrows in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and two in 2012.   Likes is the recipient of 52 awards during his career including honors from the Broadcast Education association, the Tennessee Associated Press, Kentucky Associated Press, National Broadcasting Society and the National Press Club.

This year, RTDNA awarded 661 regional Edward R. Murrow Awards in 14 categories, including Overall Excellence, Breaking News, Investigative Reporting, and Website.  RTDNA received more than 4,000 entries during the 2014 awards season, surpassing 2013 by more than 500 entries and setting an all-time record for entries in what proved to be one of the most competitive Edward R. Murrow Awards seasons in RTDNA history.

Dr. Likes competed in Region 8 against other entries from Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Regional winners automatically become eligible for the national awards competition, which will be judged in June. The national Edward R.  Murrow Awards will be presented in October at the RTDNA Awards Dinner in New York.

The Radio Television Digital News Association has been honoring outstanding achievements in electronic journalism with the Edward R. Murrow Awards since 1971. Murrow’s pursuit of excellence in journalism embodies the spirit of the awards that carry his name. Murrow Award recipients demonstrate the spirit of excellence that Edward R. Murrow made a standard for the broadcast news profession.

A complete list of the 2014 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards winners can be found at rtdna.org.

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