KCSN Wins 4 First Places from Associated Press

Cal State Northridge’s acclaimed public radio station, KCSN-88.5 FM, has won four first place awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association.

The awards are in Division Two, which consists of stations with five or fewer full-time employees in the news department. KCSN has only one full-time employee, news director Keith Goldstein. The rest of the newsroom is made up of students majoring in broadcast journalism in the university’s Department of Journalism.

“It is very significant that the judges considered the student work to be superior in quality to that of professionals working in markets such as Bakersfield, Fresno, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Palm Springs,” Goldstein said. “I believe the judges recognize the thoroughness and amount of research effort that was put into the winning stories. All those stories shared characteristics, having multiple sources and covering both sides of controversial issues.”

The first place awards were:

• Best investigative reporting to senior Matthew Workman, for his report, “Immigration Processing Delays.”
  
  
• Best radio series to Goldstein, for his six-part series, “Domestic Violence: The Cycle of Abuse.”
  
  
• Best radio documentary or special programming was awarded to two Northridge students for two separate reports. Senior Joselyn Ontiveros won for her story “Immigrant Driver’s License” and senior Matthew Areosa won for his story “The Southern California Wildfire Aftermath.”

The four first place awards will be presented on April 3 at the association’s convention at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel in Anaheim.

KCSN News has won more than 400 awards in national and state competitions against professional broadcasters and other university students, including nine Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

In January, the station’s news team won two “Golden Mikes” and a special merit award from the Radio-Television News Association of Southern California, bringing to 52 the total of “Golden Mikes” that station has won over the years.

There are more than 400 students from a variety of backgrounds enrolled in Cal State Northridge’s journalism program, which offers training in several fields—newspapers, radio and television broadcasting, on-line media, magazines, public relations and photojournalism.

CSUN’s Journalism Department is one of only 100 accredited programs in the Western Hemisphere, and is considered by professionals in the field as one of the top departments in the nation.

Media Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler, (818) 677-2130, carmen.chandler@csun.edu