Most Outstanding News Operation--Alabama Public Radio

2012 was a year of triumph and tragedy for Alabama. The Alabama Public Radio news team consists of News Director Pat Duggins, reporter Stan Ingold, and anchor/reporters Maggie Martin and Ryan Vasquez. APR produced in-depth coverage of stories ranging from the Copper Top shooting where a gunman with a military assault weapon wounded seventeen people at a crowded bar in Tuscaloosa, to the pair of EF-2 tornadoes which touched down just west of downtown Mobile, to the Alabama Crimson Tide’s 21-0 victory over the Louisiana State University Tigers to clinch the 2012 BCS college football championship in New Orleans. APR’s Stan Ingold reported on a business which allows the families of dearly departed hunters to remember their lost loved ones with a “bang,” by loading their cremated ashes into shotgun shells. Ryan Vasquez reported on a former Alabama inmate challenging the State’s policy of segregating prisoners with HIV/AIDS. News Director Pat Duggins travelled to Gulf Shores during the final hours before the arrival of Hurricane Isaac, where volunteers desperately worked to save loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings buried in the sand along the shore from being drowned by Isaac’s rough surf. And Reporter Maggie Martin produced a three part series on Alabama’s efforts to bring a “gay rodeo” to the State.