Politics & Government

Pierce County TV Wins National Awards

The county's official television station picked honors for an array of stories, including first place for coverage of the 2010 U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay Golf Course and University's Place's Grandview Drive improvement project.

Pierce County TV won 10 national awards, including second place for overall excellence, during a recent meeting of a respected trade association.

The awards were announced Sept. 24 during a meeting of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA). NATOA works with local governments on such issues as cable policy and regulation, managing rights-of-way and government access programming.

PCTV, carried on channel 22 in most areas of Pierce County, finished second to Austin, Texas in the Excellence in Government Programming category. Other top honors for PCTV were:

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• Second place in the news series category for "Pierce County News," a weekly summary of events and issues around the county.

• First place for "Pierce County News" stories about the build-up to the 2010 U.S. Amateur Championship at Chambers Bay. PCTV coverage of the championship also won two awards in the sports programming category (third in the nation, and an honorable mention) as well as an honorable mention for a public service announcement featuring pro golfer Ryan Moore.

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• Honorable mention in four other categories: community awareness for an update on University Place's Grandview project; "Rainier Country" news magazine; public education on a solid waste audit; and in the Visual Arts category for graphics.

PCTV General Manager Bill Oltman praised the production team, led by Gregg McClellan, with producer Megan Hutton and videographers and editors David Kellman and Ben Ramsey.

"We are really fortunate to have such a talented staff that can visualize the story and provide high-quality shots and editing on tight deadlines," Oltman said. "These national awards recognize their great work in communicating news and information to the people of Pierce County."

PCTV is the government access channel for Pierce County and many of its cities and towns, under the direction of the Rainier Communications Commission. The channel is seen on channel 22 on Click and Comcast cable; and on channel 76 on Rainier cable. A live stream of programming as well as archived programs and council meetings are available at www.piercecountytv.org.


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