The Alabama Public Radio entry for "Most Outstanding News Operation" includes the work of news director Pat Duggins, reporter Stan Ingold, and news anchor/reporters Alex AuBuchon and MacKenzie Bates.
2015 marked the fiftieth anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” in the town of Selma, Alabama. Voter rights marchers, in 1965, were set upon by State Troopers and a Sheriff’s posse who used horses, tear gas, and clubs to beat back the crowd. Alabama Public Radio produced three features and a radio documentary on anniversary observance in Selma, which included comments by President Barack Obama.
That same year, APR reported as leaders of the University of Alabama in Birmingham gave into angry students and athletes and reinstated the Blazers football team after cancelling the program. APR was there as GOP Presidential hopeful Donald Trump filled a stadium in Mobile with supporters, while Ted Cruz addressed conservatives in at the University of Alabama. Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson promised reforms after three officers were suspended for the violent takedown and arrest of three University of Alabama students in their apartment, which was caught on video and went viral on the internet
APR followed two lesbian couples for four months as a federal judge in Mobile, and the U.S. Supreme Court, each wrestled with the issue of same sex marriage. During the same sex case deliberations, APR News director Pat Duggins brought APR listeners the story of the “Bal Masque,” a unique way Tuscaloosa’s gay community interacts freely with its neighbors in conservative and Christian Alabama. MacKenzie Bates reported on the rebirth of the ALS ice bucket challenge, and the poignant story of a Huntsville man whose friends supported his fight against the disease. Alex AuBuchon took to the skies with an aerobatic stunt team during the Tuscaloosa Air Show. Also, Tuscaloosa welcomed the newest WBC heavyweight boxing champion, and local hero, Deontay Wilder following his title victory over Bermane Stivern.
Finally, APR spent most of the year researching and produced a multi-part series and documentary on the condition of Alabama’s water supply and the health of its rivers. The newsroom took listeners from one part of the state to the other to answer the question “where does your water come from?” APR explored the ongoing threat coal ash pollution poses to the drinking water, and health, of the impoverished community of Uniontown in Alabama’s so called “black belt.” The newsroom met with water stakeholders from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, including developers, fishermen, environmentalists and the tourism industry. Their frustration over the on-going “water war” between their states prompted them to form their own regulatory board, to pool their water rights to create a workable solution. Finally, APR examined the threat of stormwater runoff to Mobile Bay, which receives fourteen percent of all the fresh water flowing from the United States, along with much of the pollution.
Alabama Public Radio "Most Outstanding News Operation" --2015
Alex AuBucho outro
Pat Duggins outro
MacKenzie Bates outro
Stan Ingold outro
”Bloody Sunday” report
Student reaction to plan to kill UAB Blazers Football team
Tuscaloosa Police Violent take down
Ted Cruz/ Donald Trump visit Alabama
Reax to SCOTUS same sex marriage decision
Tuscaloosa welcomes WBC Boxing Champ Deontay Wilder
Alex AuBuchon joins aerobatic team in the air
Tuscaloosa’s Gay community celebrates Mardi Gras
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge returns
Tuscaloosa children’s choir performs in Japan
“Sounds of Selma”—Part of APR’s coverage of the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday
UA intern interviews Frederick R. Reese, who invited King to Selma
Young Selma couple to wed on the iconic Edmund Pettus Bridge
APR Water Series “Where Does Your Water Come From?
Water Politics
Uniontown Coal Ash crisis
Water Dam extinction event
APR Newscast
