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MEDIA Best Daily Newspaper The Daily Gazette The Daily Gazette is head-and- shoulders above the competition this year with tough reporting on local issues and solid arts coverageand they accomplished this with fewer staff and resources. And because aesthetics do count, we must add that the Gazette is the best-looking local paper, in terms of layout and use of color.
Best News Reporter Brendan Lyons Times Union His thorough reporting has set the standard for investigative journalism in the Capital Region. His reporting on the ghost-ticket scandal has led to one of the most spectacular shake-ups in recent memory in Albany city politics. His rolodex is filled with the best sources, and his editors have the good sense to let him loose to terrorize the Powers That Be. This is the third consecutive year Lyons has taken this Best Of, and we will be surprised if it is the last time, too.
Best Columnist Carl Strock The Daily Gazette Carl Strock isnt a high-on-his-perch bloviator; hes a reporter who writes a column. That makes all the difference. How many local columnists got called out this year, by name, at a public meeting because their reporting hit too close to home?
Best Radio News Reporter Karen DeWitt Karen DeWitt is a Capitol mainstay, the voice of news about our woeful state government on public radio stations across New York state. Were lucky to have her here.
Best Talk Radio Host Dan Lynch Talk 1300 AM Former Times Union editor- columnist Dan Lynch is a talk radio rarity: a moderate. A long career in the news businesshes a self-described recovering journalistallowed him to stockpile a treasure house of skepticism about politicians and their policies and motives. Every weekday afternoon he turns this hard-earned skepticism on Republicans and Democrats with equal ferocity.
Best News Anchor Jim Kambrich NewsChannel 13, WNYT The other half of our once-favorite TV news team, Jim Kambrich continues to deliver the breaking news with dependable candor, sans Lydia Kulbida, and often solo. We have to admit, since CBS 6 disappeared into the digital television void and we lost our reigning heavyweight champion in this division, the competition is not as fierce as we would like.
Best TV Meteorologist Steve Caporizzo WTEN Weve given this award to Steve Caporizzo before, and for good reasons: personability and reliability. (Also: You can tell he loves his job.) This year we can add that he and the rest of the News 10 team have developed a solid online presence, too.
Best Local Sports Coverage The Record The Record gives a lot of real estatein newspapers, real estate means pagesto sports. And a big share of this is in-depth coverage of local sports: high school, college, minor league baseball and hockey, you name it. Being able to devote your back page to a dynamic sports photo every day doesnt hurt, either.
Best Radio News WAMC With bureaus in Albany, the Berkshires, the North Country, the Hudson Valley, the Pioneer Valley and other places momentarily slipping our mind, the WAMC news staff gives us the kind of reports that provide a big picture view of whats happening in our region. No one can beat themno one even tries.
Best Media Show That Cant Discuss The Media The Media Project WAMC Boy, did the real world put a damper on this shows discussions this year or what? Because of troubles at their respective corporations, Daily Freeman publisher Ira Fusfeld and Times Union editor Rex Smith have almost as many topics they cant talk about as stuff they can.
Best Nature & Everything Radio Show In Our Back Yard WAMC Whoever thought up the idea, years ago, to put wildlife pathologist Ward Stone in front of a microphone and let him run wild, so to speak, from topic to topic, was a genius. Interviewer-host Joe Donahue may have a task akin to herding cats, but the result is delightfuland insightful.
Best Political Radio Show Live From the State Capitol Talk 1300 AM New York Post columnist and state government editor Fred Dickers weekday radio show was the place to turn for the latest news during the recent New York Senate clusterfuck. But all year round, Dicker gets the biggest newsmakers from every level of state government on his show.
Best Music Radio Station (Commercial) WEQX FM 102.7 This independently owned station has managed to stay true to its missionproviding a real alternative to corporate-programmed music radiofor more than 20 years. With a focus on new alternative music and some regular nods to the stations roots in the 80s and 90splus a couple of specialty shows including one dedicated to local musicthis is the only commercial station on your dial that doesnt like the product of focus-group research.
Best Music Radio Station (Non-Commercial) WEXT FM 97.7 They just turned 2, and theres nothing terrible about that. If it werent for EXT, wed probably have to listen to Nickelback all day long. With no corporate headquarters to answer to, the station offers quality programming and more support to local musicians than any other in the area. Furthermore, the My Exit show gives average folks an hours worth of airtime. Whens our turn?
Best Political TV Show New York Now WMHT Kudos to Susan Arbetter and company for delivering the best weekly digest of New York state government news in any media. Informative newsmaker interviews and no-nonsense panel discussions with the best print and radio reporters equal great television.
Best TV Sports Coverage Big Board Sports NewsChannel 13, WNYT With more than 20 years of Capital Region sports reporting under his belt, Rodger Wyland knows his stuff. He and weekend sports anchor Andrew Catalon have found the right balance between national sports news and local team coverage, and they offer the same enthusiasm for NBA playoffs and high-school lacrosse. All that plus a comprehensive blog and a Big Board Sports Twitter feed, what more could you ask for?
Best Albany Lifestyles Blog All Over Albany We know you read it. We read it too.
Best Political Blogger (News) Elizabeth Benjamin NY Daily News Benjamins coverage of state politics is thorough, reliable and often witty. She is a must-read for us.
Best Political Blogger (Opinion) D.I.A. Democracy in Albany The anonymous blogger D.I.A. is threatening us with retirement after this years elections. Weve heard that one before. But, just to be safe, we are going to ask the humorous critic of Albanys political and media scene to reconsider trading in that keyboard: Come on! You know you dont want to quit. Are you seriously gonna give up the fight if Jerry wins in November? While the regular media implodes? You need to blog, and we need you to blog. Youll be miserable if you dont!
Best Blog Marketplace Times Union We gave up trying to count the number of community activists, politicians, retirees, and civic and business leaders that have a bog hosted at blogs.times union.com. Seems like everyone has a blog there now. And as far as we know, there isnt another media outlet that is even trying to compete with the Times Union on this one.
Best TV Newsroom Suicide NewsChannel 13 firing Lydia Kulbida Here was the perfect example of an out-of-touch media parent company wreaking havoc on their own product. Lydia Kulbida was the best, most well-liked news anchor in the Capital Region, and the ratings proved it. Then, inexplicably, the Minnesota-based company that owns the station fired Kulbida (her former colleague Ed Dague guessed on his blog that it was due to her union activities), and now, after being the leader in the market for decades, the station has fallen from the top spot. Good.
Best Media Meltdown Times Union The months-long struggle between the Albany Newspaper Guild and the Times Unions parent company, Hearst Corp., has been an ugly, unfortunate affair. The guild, representing nearly 300 workers, has waged an admirable campaign to retain local jobs and editorial credibility while Hearst has tried to stave off economic catastrophe by employing heavy-handed negotiations to advance its demonstrably bad agenda. And Hearst appears to be winning. We shudder to think of what the TU will look like when the dust settles.
Best Keeping the Faith Parry Teasdale In the age of Twitter, who thinks that starting a newspaper is a good idea? Parry Teasdale. His new weekly, The Columbia Paper, is the veteran news mans gamble that print is not dead, but evolving. This former editor became a publisher after the paper he worked for, the Independent, was shuttered by its parent company. At the time, he told Metroland that, for people of a certain age, being publisher of your own newspaper boasts a certain gravitas. Heres to hoping that gravitas proves profitable.
Best Radio Teabagger Al Roney 810 WGY AM We do our best to avoid Al Roney. But this summer, Roney did his best to get our attention, by hosting a big Dont Call Us Republicans Teabagging rally down at the Corning Preserve. Thousands of the regions disgruntled not-Republicans gathered to voice their outrage at the high taxes that out-of-touch politicians (Obama) have saddled them with, and Roney was their revolutionary emcee. With or without Fox News help (with), Roney proclaimed that a new era of non-Republican Republican revolution was at hand. Say, Roney, hows that revolution goin?
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