KCETLink Wins Four Golden Mike Awards

Burbank, CA,-January 19, 2013 - KCETLink,

the newly formed national independent public media organization formed by the

merger between KCET and Link Media, is pleased to announce that it has been

honored with four Golden Mike Awards® in division A by the Radio &

Television News Association of Southern California (RTNA).

SoCal Connected, KCET's hard-hitting

Formally announced at the awards ceremony on Jan. 19, 2013, the Golden Mike

Artbound launched in May 2012.

"We're proud to be honored by Golden Mike Awards® for a fifth season

in a row," said Bret Marcus, Executive Producer of SoCal Connected. 

"SoCal Connected is making a difference in our community by

providing in-depth reporting on news that matters to our viewers.  We are thankful to be recognized for our

efforts."

Added Juan Devis, executive producer for Artbound: "We are happy to

be recognized for our unique approach to arts reporting. In today's

participatory culture, Artbound has created new, interconnected ways to

explore and engage with the arts and culture of southern California where our

audience becomes programmers, curators and critics."

Below is a complete list of KCETLink's 2013 Golden Mike Award® wins,

along with links to segments, descriptions and names of the individual winners

in each category: 

SOCAL CONNECTED

Best News Public Affairs Program

SoCal Connected: Ticket to Space

SoCal Connected took a look at

how Southern California has become a hub of space exploration, with the highest

concentration of private space travel companies in the world located in the

Mojave Desert. Plus, the report covered how the California Science Center won

the title to the Space Shuttle Endeavor. 2012 marks the beginning of a new

frontier for space education in Los Angeles, as the Space Shuttle Endeavor

embarks on its final journey to the California Science Center. Finally, the show looked at how everyday travel is still

a luxury for many.

Bret Marcus, Executive Producer; Justine Schmidt,

Co-Executive Producer; Val Zavala, Anchor; Rick Wilkinson, Producer; Dina

Demetrius, Producer; Vince Gonzales, Correspondent; Jennifer London,

Correspondent; Brian Unger, Commentator; Lata Pandya, Associate Producer; Debra

Greene, Associate Producer; Alberto Arce, Editor, Michael Bloecher, Editor; Kat

Keeney, Broadcast Producer; Ashley Crary, Senior Producer

Best Investigative Reporting

SoCal Connected revealed the

huge salary and lavish spending of the Housing Authority of the County of Los

Angeles (HACLA) Executive Director "Rudy" Montiel during a year-long

investigation. The reports contributed to his firing and the firing of two

commissioners. Producers battled HACLA for access to thousands of pages of

expense reports and credit card receipts of the executive staff revealing

$100,000 spent on employee incentives and $2,000 dinner tabs. 

Bret Marcus, Executive Producer; Justine Schmidt, Co-Executive Producer;

Karen Foshay, Producer; Rocio Zamora, Producer; Laurel Erickson, Correspondent;

Miguel Contreras, Associate Producer; Alberto Arce, Editor; Robert Vega,

Graphics; Ashley Crary, Senior Producer; Tom Tanquary & Kenny Gioseffi,

Videographers; Brian Frank, New Media Editor; Linda Burns, New Media Producer.

ARTBOUND

Best Entertainment Reporting

Artbound Episode One

Artbound explores the

arts and culture of Southern California through articles, essays, and

thinkpieces by more than 30 contributors in 11 counties. These correspondents

cover cultural happenings in the communities where they live, providing an

inside look at art across the region. Then the Artbound audience votes

online for an article to be made into a short online video. Those videos are

then assembled into a broadcast television show.  Episode One's mini-documentary compilation

covered "Date Farmers: Desert Detritus Becomes Chicano Pop Art" (Riverside

County); "Hijabistas: Inside the World of Muslim American Fashion" (Orange

County); "Jackrabbit Homestead" (San Bernardino County); and Steel Modern: A

History of Steel Houses in Palm Springs" (Riverside County).  The episode also featured interviews with

each of the columnists on which the videos were based, including Drew

Tewksbury, Lilledeshan Bose, Kim Stringfellow and Patrick McGrew.  In addition, a segment titled "Hear and Now:

Cut Chemist" featured the music of renowned DJ, Cut Chemist.

Executive Producer: Juan Devis; Producer: Bruce Dickson;

Co-Producers: Drew Tewksbury / Justin Cram; Editor: Alex Chu/Chris Donlon

Best Internet News Reporting

Artbound The Date Farmers

The Coachella Valley, located near the halfway point

between Los Angeles and Phoenix, is home to an artistic duo, the Date Farmers,

whose art is influenced by the collision of cultures that make up the region.

Armando Lerma and Carlos Ramirez create iconoclastic multi-dimensional pieces

utilizing pedestrian materials, such as house paint, fliers, stickers and

cardboard to build assemblage pieces that they overlay with their own

hand-drawn images. The work is multifaceted and integrates everything from

Catholicism and Native American mysticism to commercialism and pop culture.

Based on a column by Drew Tewksbury; Executive Producer:

Juan Devis; Director, Producer, D.P.: Bruce Dickson; Editors: Chris Donlon

& Lex Sadasivan

About SoCal Connected

SoCal Connected, winner of the Peabody and two

duPont-Columbia awards, 17 Emmy® Awards, 19 Golden Mikes, 41 LA Press Club

Awards, two Gracie Awards, and three regional Edward R. Murrow Awards,

including Best News Documentary and Los Angeles Magazine's "Best

New Local TV Program" of 2009, airs nightly at 5:30 p.m. with an encore at

10 p.m. exclusively on KCET. 

SoCal Connected is made possible through the

generous support of The Ahmanson Foundation, serving the Los Angeles community

since 1952; Jim and Anne Rothenberg; the Maddocks-Brown Foundation; The John

Randolph Haynes & Dora Haynes Foundation; and the California Endowment.

About Artbound

Launched in May 2012, Artbound is a Southern and

Central California cultural journalism project produced by KCETLink dedicated

to producing an online destination about the arts and culture of our region.

Columns are penned by more than 20 experienced artistic advisors, cultural

critics, curators and definitive tastemakers of the arts.  This unique trans-media multi-platform

initiative explores the arts in 11 counties using a participatory methodology

in which visitor and fan engagement propel popular columns to the next platform

of production; first as in depth short form video documentaries; and based on

the volume and quality of user comments, an hour-long episode for

television.  Artbound is the

winner of a National Entertainment Journalism Award for Best Documentary or

Special Program Short for its piece: "Date Farmers: Desert Detritus Becomes

Chicano Pop Art," and named Best Culture Website 2012 by LA Weekly.

ABOUT KCETLink

On-air, online and in the community, KCETLink is a

donor-supported independent public media organization distributed via satellite

nationally on DirecTV and DISH and via broadcast in Southern and Central

California. For additional information about KCETLink productions,

web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit

kcet.org or linktv.org.

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