News 7 Broadcast Receiving National Recognition

November 2015 Newscast Wins One Award, Nominated for a Second

March 21, 2016

Lyndon State’s November 19 News 7 broadcast has been named the third-best college newscast by the Broadcast Education Association (BEA), just behind programs from Arizona State University and the University of Oklahoma. This same newscast is a finalist for the Region 1 Mark of Excellence competition for Best All-Around Television Newscast in the northeast as chosen by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

Lyndon’s 30-minute newscast was produced by Ryan Jenot ’16, directed by Adam Donnelly ’16, and anchored by Camille Delongis ’16 and Dominic Amato ’16. Student Meteorologist Falicia Woody ’16 provided the day’s forecast. The Thursday newscast opened with a house fire in Danville before reporting on the new warming shelter in St. Johnsbury.

Judges for the BEA award said, “It was great the producers recognized the spot news event at the top of the newscast. It showed hustle and added some immediacy to the newscast. The stories felt quick and to the point and really moved the newscast forward. The newscast was competitive with any small/medium market station.”

The BEA Student News Competition awards students for outstanding work as news anchors, reporters, weathercasters, and bona fide student-produced newscasts. Lyndon placed in the category “Television Newscast 4 Days or more per Week,” which is for live to air/tape newscasts with no postproduction that air four or more days a week. Lyndon last placed in the BEA’s “Final Four” for daily student newscast in 2014 tied with Oklahoma.

The 2016 honor is the first for News 7 since the college completed a $211-thousand dollar conversion from analog to all-digital HD equipment.

The second recognition, the annual SPJ Mark of Excellence award, honors the best in student journalism. Entries are first judged on the regional level. First place regional winners advance to the national competition. Final results will be revealed at a luncheon on Saturday, April 9, 2016 during the SPJ Region 1 Conference at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

Last year, Lyndon photographer Kevin Kelleher ’16 won first place in Region 1 in the TV Sports Category and went on to a top 3 finish in the National SPJ Mark of Excellence competition with his coverage of the CircumBurke Challenge. Kelleher was one of four Lyndon students honored for their work at the SPJ Regional conference last spring.

News 7 is an award-winning television news program produced as part of the Vermont Center for Community Journalism at Lyndon State. The VCCJ is dedicated to providing local news to northeastern Vermont and northern New Hampshire while training student journalists. The program was recently recognized by the Radio Television Digital News Association and Crain’s TVPro magazine as one of the nation’s Top 25 journalism education programs for the third year in a row. (2015 – Top 10 in 2013 and 2014). Since 1987, Lyndon State students have won a total of 117 awards at the state, regional and national level.