Broadcast students take home Hearst awards

Saboe	Marshall	Dent	Ross
For information about students' work, click on faces

By Matthew Pritchard
J-School Web reporter

Four University of Montana broadcast journalism students received awards for excellence in radio news and television news as part of the 43rd annual Hearst Awards.

Beth Saboe finished ninth and Angela Marshall finished 11th in radio news, while Steve Dent took 16th and Martin Ross took 20th in television news.

“I couldn’t believe it when I got the letter,” Saboe said. “I thought it was a joke.”

Saboe was the highest finisher this year for UM in the broadcast news category. Her ninth place finish won her $500. All top 10 winners receive money that is matched by the Hearst Foundation and given to the winners’ school.

The Hearst awards are presented by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and recognize college students’ work in radio, television, writing and photography. This year the foundation will give away more than $400,000.

The latest round looked at radio and television news. Each participating school in these categories had to submit two students in each category and each student had to submit two pieces.

Professors in UM’s R-TV Department choose broadcast students they feel have the best two pieces of hard news in radio or television.

“It’s tough because we’ve got so many talented students,” said broadcast journalism professor Denise Dowling.

Both radio and television have features and news categories. The broadcast department tends to do better in news than in features. “We steer them into hard news coverage,” Dowling said.

UM finished eighth in broadcast news this year. This is a good finish, Dowling said, but it can’t compare to last year’s fifth-place finish.

UM’s winning stories ranged from underage drinking at football games to the closing of Jay’s Upstairs, a local bar that features local bands.

Here’s a look at the winning pieces:

Beth Saboe

Saboe was the highest broadcast news finisher this year with ninth place in radio. Her first story looked at the diversity of license plates in Montana and aired on KUFM, the university’s public radio station. Non-profit organizations in Montana may request their own license plates as a fund-raiser. People like the unique plates, the organizations like them, but the Montana Highway Patrol said it makes their job harder, Saboe said.

Her other story focused on new pool tables in the University Center and the increase in student fees and aired on KBGA, the student-run station at UM. The idea came to her when a friend told her that brand-new pool tables weren’t being used in the UC Game Room, even though students are paying higher fees. She later found this was not the case and instead focused on why student fees were increased. “It was a very complicated story,” she said.

Angela Marshall

Marshall finished 11th in radio news. Her first piece was an informational piece about breast cancer and breast cancer survivors, she said. The story aired on KUFM. Marshall interviewed a breast cancer survivor and said she got positive feedback. Several people called her after it aired and wanted to meet the survivor, she said.

Her second story was about the closing of Jay’s Upstairs, a local bar that featured music from local musicians and aired on KBGA. She did the story from a musician’s perspective and talked about how it helped many local bands get recognized.