WWO News Wins Five NY International Radio Festival Awards

Westwood One News was honored this week with five awards from the New York International Radio Festival, including a prestigious Gold  Medal Award for its “Pain & Pride: Remembering Vietnam – 50 Years Later” news retrospective, which aired during Veterans Day weekend last November, 2017. The awards were presented at the Manhattan Penthouse in New York City.

Jim Bohannon

The “Pain & Pride” special was hosted by Westwood One news and talk host Jim Bohannon, a Vietnam veteran and Redcatcher who served with the 856th Radio Research Detachment in Cat Lai and Long Binh, Vietnam, from 1967-1968.  This award is a well-earned bookend to the NY Festival prize Bohannon won 30 years ago for his first Pain & Pride news special.

“I'm very gratified that producer David Oziel, the Westwood One News team, and I have received this recognition,” said Bohannon. “For me, there's special meaning in that we did a 20-year look back Pain and Pride special that won the New York Festival's Grand Award in 1988.  Also, I'll be the keynote speaker this Thursday, June 21st, at the Branson, Missouri reunion of my Vietnam unit, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade.  It's a delightful manifestation of what Vietnam vets say to each other:  ‘welcome home.’”

Jim gave the keynote address at the Vietnam Wall Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1990, and was the principal MC for the Vietnam Veterans reunion in Branson in 2002.

In addition to the Gold award, Westwood One News won a Silver award for America in the Morning for “Best News Magazine,” two Bronze awards for its coverage of the Las Vegas shooting last year for “Best Breaking Coverage” and “Ongoing Coverage” of a news story, and a Bronze medal for its Summer of Love retrospective for “Best Historical Documentary.”

Westwood One News continues to reap industry awards and honors, including last week’s presentation of the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for breaking news coverage of the Las Vegas shooting.

Stations interested in learning more about Westwood One News can contact Jim Jones at jimjones@westwoodone.com or (202) 840-7933.