KCLU was the biggest winner among radio stations in Division B, the category for those with five or fewer news staff members, at the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California’s 63rd annual awards ceremony Saturday at the Universal Hilton. Broadcast newsrooms in a region stretching from San Luis Obispo and Bakersfield to the Mexican border competed.
News Director Lance Orozco received the top award for Best Original News Commentary, Analysis, Station Editorial or Series of Editorials among all large and small stations for “My Cancer,” a story chronicling his 2012 battle with kidney cancer that included recordings from his surgery and the appointmentwhere he received the biopsy results. The story also received the small-station award for Best Individual Writing.
Orozco also won three other Golden Mikes in the small-station category. He received the Best News Reporting award for “The Long Goodbye,” a story about a Santa Barbara woman coping with her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. “The Hidden Household Danger,” his story about a University of California, Santa Barbara, student who survived a monthlong coma after carbon monoxide poisoning, received the Best Business and Consumer Reporting award. Orozco was also honored forBest Entertainment Reporting for “The Rat Pack is Back,” which was about a show that ran at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.