WJCT’s Odd Ball podcast and its website took home the first-place honor in the category of digital programming at this year’s Florida News Awards, given out by the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists. The award ceremony took place Saturday evening via Facebook Live.
Lindsey Kilbride hosted and produced Odd Ball, which has been downloaded just shy of 700,000 times by listeners across the globe since its launch last October. Odd Ball, a serialized nonfiction mystery story, tells the tale of a Jacksonville family who found a strange metal object on their property in the 1970s.
WJCT’s competition included radio stations in the largest markets in Florida.
The award win, a first for WJCT in this category, reflected a cross-departmental team effort.
WJCT News Director Jessica Palombo edited the story and helped with mixing, and the voices of a few WJCT staffers even made cameo appearances, including Catt Davis, Music Director David Luckin, and talk show host Melissa Ross.
Graphic design for the Odd Ball website was by WJCT Creative Director Bonnie Zerr, and web design was by Digital Director Ray Hollister.
WJCT’s Neily Braren managed a marketing partnership with Bold Bean Coffee Roasters, which allowed listeners to pay for packages that included advance listens of future episodes and bags of a specially roasted Odd Ball coffee.
Congratulations are also in order for WJCT News reporter Sky Lebron, who won a handful of awards for work he produced at WUFT News in Gainesville prior to joining the WJCT News staff this January.
The Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists named pieces that Sky voiced and reported as the Best Public Affairs program and Best Sports Feature of the year among small-market radio stations in Florida.
And he also voiced and reported this year’s Edward R. Murrow regional award winners for Best News Series and Best News Documentary among small-market radio stations in Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
According to the Radio Television Digital News Association, “Award recipients demonstrate the spirit of excellence that Murrow set as a standard for the profession of electronic journalism.”
Regional winners now move onto the national phase of the Murrow Awards competition.
