WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — WPTV is proud to announce that six current or former members of the news team won regional Edward R. Murrow Awards on Thursday.
The WPTV news team won awards in three categories – hard news, feature reporting and sports reporting – among regional large-market nominations.
Hard News
Contact 5 investigative reporter Michael Buczyner and photojournalist Kaan Pala won in the hard news category for their conversations with a pair of doctors treating patients battling COVID-19 in Palm Beach County hospitals.
Dr. Daniella Lamour and Dr. Thomas Peterson, emergency medicine residents at Florida Atlantic University, shared their stories from the front lines of the pandemic and the emotional toll it took on them.
"This is not a joke," Lamour told WPTV in September. "People are dying and it's very, very frequent."
Peterson recalled seeing numerous patients under 40 lose their lives because of complications related to COVID-19.
"It's hard to go home and spend time with your wife, to spend time with your son, to spend time with your family, with your friends, 45 minutes after you talked to a family who just lost their son, who lost their mother," Peterson said.
WATCH: Death delivers 'frequent' toll for Palm Beach County doctors battling COVID-19 at hospitals
Feature Reporting
Kelley Dunn, who retired Wednesday after 36 years at WPTV, anchor Janny Rodriguez and former WPTV photojournalist Paris Vasquez shared the award for feature reporting, profiling Rodriguez's perilous journey from Cuba to the U.S. when she was a child.
Rodriguez recounted how her parents left the communist island in 1998, when she was just 8 years old and her younger sister, Eva, was 3.
"From what my dad told me, they bought a part of a boat, basically the shell, in secret. It had holes everywhere. My dad says they had to patch it up," Rodriguez said in July. "It was like a makeshift wooden boat with car parts and whatever else they could find."
There were 12 people on the makeshift boat, including four children.
"I do remember my parents put us in an inner tube, lifesaver, my sister and I, in the middle of the night," Rodriguez recalled. "We could hear the adults having the conversation, 'If we don't make it through the night, they need to be in this.'"
WATCH: WPTV anchor Janny Rodriguez recounts perilous journey with family from Cuba
Sports Reporting
Last but not least, Vasquez was once again honored, along with WPTV anchor Jay Cashmere, for their story about a pair of South Florida teen divers competing in the Olympic trials.
Kaylee Bishop, 14, and Emilie Moore, 16, let WPTV join them during a training session last June at the Coral Springs Aquatic Center, where they were being coached by Michelle Sandelin, who was a member of the U.S. Olympic dive team in 2000.
They had their sights set on Tokyo.
"As soon as I walk up to the end of the platform, I know it's my time to shine," Moore said.
"That adrenaline in you just makes you want to keep coming up here and nailing dives, nailing dives, nailing dives," Bishop added.
WATCH: Boca Raton teen divers set sights on highest platform, with help from Olympian coach
The Edward R. Murrow Awards, presented annually since 1971, are the most prestigious recognition a journalist can receive.
Divided into small and large markets by region, the awards are split between 13 regions throughout the country. WPTV's region includes all of Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
WPTV was the only television station in South Florida to win a Murrow Award this year.
