650 CKOM wins national award for best local radio newscast

A 650 CKOM newscast featuring the details of a carbon monoxide poisoning at the Wakaw rink during a hockey tournament and the ongoing budget deliberations for the City of Saskatoon has won a national award.

The November 2023 newscast was recognized at the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) awards gala in Toronto on Saturday night for Best Local Radio Newscast.

The winning effort beat out entries from radio stations in Halifax and Kamloops and showcases what our newsrooms deliver every day — local news that matters.

Earlier this year, our sister station 980 CJME won RTDNA prairie region awards for Best Feature News and Excellence in Sports Reporting.

Star Blanket Cree Nation shared in January 2023 that 2,000 “confirmed hits” were found at former residential school site by using ground penetrating radar. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

Senior reporter Lisa Schick was recognized for a second time in three years for Feature News for her story on the results of the ground-penetrating radar search for unmarked graves at the former site of the Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School.

Shane Clausing won Excellence in Sports reporting for a feature about a viral video of a drawbridge staircase in Lang, where players take stairs from the top of the building to the ice surface, something you rarely see in a hockey rink.

I play here sometimes. https://t.co/U2lSkXDmkZ pic.twitter.com/ndSaGxg3br

— Mike Foley (@mikefoleyfarms1) January 30, 2023

Between the two stations, this is the sixth time in nine years that News Talk Radio has been honoured as the best radio newscast in the country.

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