Last year, WPLN aired more than 1,200 local stories on 90.3 FM. And of those, a select few have now risen to accolades outside of Nashville, and even beyond Tennessee.
The Public Media Journalists Association award winners were announced this week, and two episodes of WPLN’s daily show This Is Nashville were recognized.
In the Audience Engagement Program category, the episode highlighting the youth forum in Nashville’s mayoral race placed second nationwide. It included direct audience engagement from some of WPLN’s youngest listeners and brought their concerns about the city’s future to the forefront.
And the episode explaining the path from homelessness to permanent housing won second place in the News/Public Affairs Program category. That episode’s producer, Tasha A. F. Lemley, is now This Is Nashville’s managing editor and has been leading this year’s related nine-part housing series “In My Place.”
“The Kids of Rutherford County,” hosted by WPLN’s Meribah Knight, tells the story of a Tennessee juvenile court that jailed children at an alarming rate.
Meribah Knight — who had previously won a Peabody Award for her WPLN podcast, The Promise — has been recognized multiple times for her latest series, The Kids of Rutherford County, which WPLN produced in partnership with ProPublica, Serial Productions and The New York Times.
Most recently, the Tennessee Bar Association honored her with the Fourth Estate Award, which aims to “recognize and encourage journalists who promote public understanding of the rule of law and improvements in our system of justice through the vigorous exercise of their First Amendment rights.”
Earlier this year, Knight won the George Polk Award for the four-part podcast chronicling the approach to juvenile discipline by a judge in Rutherford County. The series stood out from the more than 500 entries to the award, given by Long Island University, that is named after a CBS correspondent who was murdered in 1948 while covering the Greek civil war. The award now puts a premium on investigative and enterprising journalism.
And The Kids of Rutherford County was named a finalist in the podcast category for the National Magazine Awards, presented by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) in association with the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
William DeShazer for ProPublica Kimberly Jones-Mbuyi, left, and KiAndrea Jones, Michaela Carter’s mother and sister, hold a photograph of Carter at their home in the Antioch neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee.
WPLN criminal justice reporter Paige Pfleger has also drawn attention for her investigative journalism. Her work with ProPublica put attention on how Tennessee’s justice system allows dangerous people to keep guns.
The Investigative Reporters & Editors named her a finalist in the audio (small market) category in this year’s awards.
Pfleger was also honored with a Livingston Award for the same reporting. These awards, through the Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan, honor outstanding achievement by journalists under the age of 35.
And this piece of reporting has won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award and is now advancing to the National Murrow Award competition.
I've worked in public radio for over a decade now, and have always wanted to do this kind of work but have never had the opportunity until I joined @WPLN and we teamed up with @propublica. This is my first ever Murrow, and I'm so lucky to share it with a team of talented people.
— Paige Southwick Pfleger (@PaigePfleger) May 22, 2024
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