Marfa Public Radio has received two National Edward R. Murrow awards this year for excellence in journalism.
The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) recognized the station with awards for News Series and Excellence in Innovation in small-market radio. In the News Series category, reporter Mitch Borden was awarded for his three-part series on the small West Texas town of Toyah, which struggled for years to access safe drinking water. In the Excellence in Innovation category, Zoe Kurland, Sally Beauvais, and Elise Pepple were recognized for their work on “Marfa for Beginners,” the station’s first-ever podcast celebrating the myths and realities you might not know about Marfa.
“When I first heard the news that we won National Murrows, I started to tear up,” said Elise Pepple, executive director of the station. “I was thinking about how much went into Marfa for Beginners and the Toyah water series. Marfa Public Radio won National Murrow Awards for what the station is all about. It is this combination of creative storytelling from our podcast studio and lifeline essential reporting from the newsroom that is at the core of our work.”
To date, Marfa Public Radio has received seven National National Murrow awards. The first, in 2016, was for investigative reporting in Mexico’s Juárez Valley. In 2019, the station received National Murrow awards for its use of social media, multimedia and feature reporting. And then in 2020, the station was awarded in the hard news category.
“Our team and our listeners have so much to be proud of. National Murrow Awards recognize the best work in our field. Zoe and Mitch are national-level talent,” said Pepple. “The talent does not end there. We worked with former Marfa Public Radio reporter Sally Beauvais on Marfa for Beginners. The excellence of our newsroom reporting is led and fostered by Carlos Morales. And I just want to add that it takes all members of the staff to make this possible: Yvonne, Claudia, Alberto, Travis, Chris, Lindsey.”
The Edward R. Murrow Awards are among the most prestigious awards in news and, as described by RTDNA, “recognize local and national news stories that uphold the RTDNA Code of Ethics, demonstrate technical expertise and exemplify the importance and impact of journalism as a service to the community.”
The awards will be presented at the National Edward R. Murrow Awards Gala on Oct. 14.
A complete list of this year’s winners with links to the winning entries is at rtdna.org.