News 12 Connecticut, WNPR-FM grab top broadcast awards

HARTFORD, Conn.—News 12 Connecticut won the top television award Friday in the Connecticut Associated Press Broadcasters Association contest for 2007.

The Norwalk-based cable news operation received the Mark Twain Award for overall station excellence.

Public broadcasting's WNPR-FM won the Mark Twain Award for overall radio station excellence and Aaron Kupec of WTIC-AM won the Walt Dibble Award for personal excellence in radio news.

News 12 Connecticut also won first place in several other categories including Best Weathercast, Feature Quick Hit, Feature Videography, Sports-One Time Special, News Writing and honorable mentions in several other categories.

The top award for Best Newscast went to Fox 61, WTIC-TV, which also had first place wins for General News, Feature, Breaking News Videography and Sports Videography,

WTNH-TV was cited for its coverage of the fatal Cheshire home invasion in July, winning in the categories of Breaking News Coverage and Continuing Coverage for its reporting on the triple homicide.

Channel 8 also won top honors for Regularly Scheduled Sports Program and Investigative reporting.

WFSB-TV took top honors for Enterprise, Best Web Site and won honorable mention in the Investigative category.

In the radio division, WTIC-AM, in Hartford, won for Best Newscast. It also took top honors for Spot News, Best Sports Story and Best Sportscast.

WSHU-FM in Fairfield won first prize in two categories -- Feature and Enterprise.

The awards were announced and presented Friday night at a dinner in Hartford. The speaker for the awards banquet was Maggie Rodriguez, co-anchor of CBS' "The Early Show."

Georgia radio and television stations served by The Associated Press judged the contest entries.