KCBS-TV News Sweeps Golden Mike Awards

KCBS-TV won the most honors for the third consecutive year at the Radio & TV News Assn. of Southern California’s 49th annual Golden Mike Awards ceremony Saturday at the Universal Hilton Hotel in Universal City, but KTTV and San Diego’s KNSD-TV captured the most coveted prizes.

KCBS took home 15 honors for excellence in television news reporting in 1998 while KTTV’s hourlong nightly newscast and KNSD’s half-hour show were recognized as the best in those respective categories. KCAL-TV won for best daytime newscast, one of four prizes that station collected.

In Division B, for television news staffs with fewer than 70 full-time employees, KVEA-TV captured seven awards to lead all winners for the second year in a row, but the nightly newscast of Spanish-language rival KMEX-TV was judged the division’s best. KMEX won five awards overall.

Among the categories KCBS won was that of best investigative reporting, in which the station’s “Special Assignment” team was lauded for its look at unsanitary conditions in many Southland restaurants. The story resulted in stepped-up government enforcement of the health code.

Other KCBS wins came for best live coverage of a news story, best news reporting, best newscast writing, best sports feature writing and best entertainment reporting.

KNX-AM (1070) was the most-honored radio station for the third time in as many years, winning 10 awards, including best newscast of more than 15 minutes. KFI-AM (640) won for best short newscast.

The Division B radio competition, for staffs of five members or fewer, was dominated by Ventura station KVEN-AM, which won five awards, including best newscast.

Saturday’s ceremony was marked by an emotional tribute to the late Charleye Wright of KNX, a veteran radio journalist who died following kidney surgery Oct. 27 at the age of 61. Wright won a sports reporting award for a piece he did on basketball star Michael Jordan’s off-court troubles, and when Wright’s wife, son and daughter stepped forward to accept, they received a long standing ovation.

KCBS also dominated the 47th annual Associated Press Television-Radio Assn. of California-Nevada news competition, whose winners were announced Friday. The station won 15 awards, including best anchor team (Ann Martin and Michael Tuck), while KTTV won three and KCOP-TV won two.