The William Randolph Hearst Foundation has announced the finalists selected in the 2019-2020 Journalism Awards Program’s Radio News and Features competition. The top radio winners qualify for the National Radio Championship, held this June in Houston, TX, along with qualifying television, writing, photojournalism and
multimedia finalists.
The top radio winners who qualify for the National Championship:
First Place, $3,000 award, Aviva Okeson-Haberman, University of Missouri *
Second Place, $2,000 award, Annabeth Poe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Third Place, $1,500 award, Sofia Mingote, University of Florida
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Jared Weber, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Alexandra Snow, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Sixth Place, Certificate, Jonah Hrkal, Arizona State University
* Aviva is a spring 2019 graduate and per program guidelines is not eligible to participate in the Championship.
The schools of all award-winning finalists receive matching grants.
Radio Finalists:
Seventh Place, Certificate, Natalie Turner, Western Kentucky University
Eighth Place, Certificate, Emma VandenEinde, Arizona State University
Ninth Place, Certificate, Ford Hatchett, Syracuse University
Tenth Place, Certificate, Aidan Morton, University of Montana
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has placed first in the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition with the highest accumulated student points in the Radio and TV 1 Competitions.
They are followed by: Arizona State University; University of Florida; Syracuse University; University of Missouri; University of Colorado; Michigan State University; Brigham Young University (tie); University of Texas at Austin (tie); University of Montana.
Final intercollegiate scores will be announced after the TV 2 competition has been finalized. The top three
winning schools earn $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively.
The radio judges are: Candy Altman, retired Vice President News, Hearst Television, NY; Julie Chin, News Director, KNX Radio, CA; and Mary Lynn Roper, retired President and General Manager, KOAT-TV, NM.
The 60th annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program, added broadcast news to the competitions in 1988. The
program also includes five writing, two television, two photo, and four multimedia competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends.
104 universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited
undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.
