Wednesday, April 27, 2016

SF Radio: KCBS 'Unholy Water' Series Wins Major Award

All News Radio  KCBS 940 AM / 106.9 FM reporter Doug Sovern, along with then-Director of News and Programming, Ed Cavagnaro, have been honored by the National Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) with a Sigma Delta Chi Award for Best Investigative Reporting, Radio (Top 100 Markets or Network/Syndicated) for “Unholy Water.”

KCBS was the only commercial radio station in the country to win a Sigma Delta Chi award this year. The honor will be recognized during a ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on June 20th, 2016.

“Doug clearly excels in investigative journalism and all of us at KCBS are pleased his work has been acknowledged by the National Society of Professional Journalists.  We’re fortunate to have Doug as part of the newsroom team,” said Doug Harvill, Senior VP and Market Manager CBS Radio San Francisco.

“This is why we do what we do: to hold people in power accountable and try to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves,” said Sovern. “This is a wonderful honor, and I am thrilled to be in such esteemed company.”

The five-part series exposed the San Francisco Archdiocese’s installation of an illegal plumbing system at St. Mary’s Cathedral, to pour water on homeless people at night to keep them from sleeping in the cathedral doorways, in the middle of the worst drought in California history.   Link to the series:  http://www.cbssf.com/Sovern/SPJ

 Sovern was also honored for this series by the 2016 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards, which bestowed a Special Finalist Citation earlier this year.

As a result of the station’s reporting, San Francisco officials ordered the system removed, the Bishop in charge issued a public apology and was transferred to another parish, and the archdiocese launched a new initiative to help the City address homelessness.  The story made international headlines.

Link to the complete list of awardees:  http://www.spj.org/sdxa15.asp

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