KBeach, the student radio station at California State University, Long Beach, won the Golden Mike for best individual writing in radio at the 65th Annual Golden Mike Awards Ceremony on Saturday.
Jeff Kaufman, the producer and anchor for Hi-Definition at KBeach, won the award for his piece, “15 Seconds to Confusion,” according to a press release from The Radio and Television News Association of Southern California.
“[Writing is] the one thing I think I’m good at,” Kaufman said. “Writing leads to everything else so it really means a lot to recognized for writing.”
Danny Lemos, a KBeach faculty media advisor, said the award was the station’s second Golden Mike in two years.
“We are so proud to be recognized among the leading college radio news outlets in Southern California – right up there with KCSN and KCRW,” Lemos said via email.
Kaufman said he thinks the award signifies that KBeach is on the right path.
“KBeach has really turned around [in the past few years,” Kaufman said. “It has become an outlet for the students and the community… to learn about radio in this digital age.”
Kaufman said “15 Seconds to Confusion” was inspired by NBC’s news packages called “15 Seconds to Truth,” a video series that aired on MSNBC and on NBC’s website in spring 2014.
NBC’s news packages were 15-second news stories told in completely in pictures and graphics, Kaufman said.
“After they first went online, I had a look at it and I thought this is just crazy,” Kaufman said. “[So] I had a little fun with it, [making a] little fun of it and make a point at the same time that this is not the solution to the news businesses’ problems, to make it even dumber and shorter.”
Kaufman said he hopes his piece won because the style was breezy, informal and easy to understand, but “still had some style to it.”
“Jeff Kaufman has spent over two years as a volunteer mentoring our radio journalism students and richly deserves the recognition for his own writing,” Lemos said via email.
Lemos said KBeach enters several categories for the Golden Mike Awards every year. Kaufman said the Golden Mike Awards are one of the few journalism contests that do not have to give an award if judges do not think anything in the category is worthy.
According to the aforementioned press release, the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California presents annual Golden Mike Awards “for excellence in news and public affairs programming on broadcast, cable and Internet outlets in the 13 California counties south of Fresno.”