KCSN News Wins Two Golden Mike Awards

Cal State Northridge's acclaimed public radio station KCSN-FM (88.5) has won two "Golden Mike" awards from the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California.

The awards-best newscast over 15 minutes and best news reporting-were in Division B, which consists of stations with five or fewer full-time employees in their news departments. KCSN's news division is made up of only one full-time employee, News Director Keith Goldstein, in addition to Northridge students majoring in broadcast journalism.

"The judges said they were impressed with the content of our broadcast, the issues we were willing to tackle and the thoroughness of the reporting," Goldstein said. He added that the awards were "a validation of the quality of the student journalists' work which was thought to be high caliber by the professional news managers from around the country who did the actual judging."

The winning newscast was aired on Sept. 21, 2004, and included stories on the city of Los Angeles' reduction of workers compensation costs, the Department of Motor Vehicles' reduction of the amount of time people wait in line, fire department helicopter pilots, binge drinking on college campuses, negative campaign ads in the presidential race, the lack of after-school programs in public schools, sports, health and a feature on bad bosses.

Contributors to that show were producer Goldstein and students Kaitlyn Van Diepen, anchor and writer; Malik Lee, reporter; Matt Sizemore, writer; Queenie Conner, writer; Moe Joseph; health reporter; Devin Saint-Albin, sports reporter; and Ayan Murtaza, reporter.

Van Diepen also won a Golden Mike for best reporting for her story "Operation Read: The Road to Literacy."

The awards were presented on Jan. 29th during a special ceremony at the Universal Hilton.

To date, KCSN's news division has won 54 Golden Mike awards from the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California; ten Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio and Television News Directors Association and a first place in the National Society of Professional Journalists' Mark of Excellence competition.