In 2021, WPLN News covered natural disasters and manmade tragedies. We brought listeners moments of levity and instances of reconnection. We dove deep into allegations of misconduct in the Nashville police department and celebrated 150 years of the Fisk Jubilee singers. We revisited the promises made in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests, remembered a deadly string of tornadoes and covered the rebuilding of a community ravished by flash floods.
These stories from 2021 — and the newsroom that created them — were recognized as the best in the region by RTDNA’s Edward R. Murrow Awards. See the full list of Region 8 winners here, or find WPLN’s specific awards below.
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We also want to recognize the excellent reporting and production that WPLN staffers have done since the new year started, including the launch of This Is Nashville.
News Documentary: Three Castles And The Music City — 150 Years Of The Fisk Jubilee Singers
Immerse yourself in the music and voices of the original emissaries of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Narrator Destiny Birdsong is joined by members of the current Fisk Jubilee Singers ensemble, featuring old and new performances, as well as a collaboration with Adia Victoria and original music composed by Bryson Finney. This one-hour special was edited by Anita Bugg and Colleen Phelps, and produced by Joshua Moore and Colleen Phelps.
Radio Special: Three Castles And The Music City — 150 Years Of The Fisk Jubilee Singers
Newscast: WPLN Special Newscast, Dec. 11, 2021, 10:58 a.m.
When tornadoes ripped through Tennessee and Kentucky early on a Saturday morning, WPLN’s news team whirred to action. We inserted newscasts into every slot we could find in a busy weekend schedule, providing timely severe weather alerts and reports on the damage. In this newscast, WPLN’s Marianna Bacallao lays out the scope of the devastation, while reporter Blake Farmer provides one of the first accounts of the destruction in Mayfield, Ky., just over two hours to the northwest of Nashville.
Digital: WPLN.org
As a public radio station, we try to approach our web presence with the same creativity we do our on-air storytelling. The examples provided range from enterprise and long-term coverage to “news you can use” and accountability listicles, with the goal of always being as immersive for our audience as audio-only. Our digital news editor is Rachel Iacovone.
- Critical anniversary coverage. For the one-year anniversary of the deadly Super Tuesday tornadoes in March 2021, we created a landing page to encompass all our work that ranged in length, beats and interactivity with our map of the tornado path. The one-year-later list of what racial justice protestors demanded vs. what they got covered similarly many subjects all in one web post. (Tony Gonzalez, Alexis Marshall, Mack Linebaugh)
- Community engagement reporting. To match Metro reporter Ambriehl Crutchfield’s civic engagement approach to the beat, we created a form where our audience can submit their questions to Nash In The Know. And they already have, as evidenced by the carousel of previous stories answering what the community has asked just below. (Ambriehl Crutchfield)
- Interactive maps. Our Juneteenth coverage showed how our digital team notices what is already being discussed in different communities online — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit — and compiles that into comprehensive and accessible forms for the entire community. While other local outlets had five to 10 Juneteenth events mentioned on their websites, WPLN collected nearly 50. (Rachel Iacovone)
- Multimedia web posts. The online version of this story on the closure of the iconic Hermitage Cafe took a much deeper approach with the inclusion of embeds from Google reviews that shared customer stories, the restaurant’s Facebook account that posted historical images, music videos on YouTube that had been shot on the premises, all alongside our own high-quality images of the café’s final day. (Rachel Iacovone, Tasha A.F. Lemley)
Overall Excellence: WPLN News in 2021
In this selection of stories, you’ll find the full range of those stories — and how they’ve impacted us personally.
- Nashville Hairstylist Wants To Elevate The Craft Of Styling Black Hair And Wash Out Eurocentric Focus (Ambriehl Crutchfield, Jan. 5, 2021)
- Essay: The Disaster Year — A Reporter Reflects On A Year Marked By Suffering (Meribah Knight, Feb. 28, 2021)
- One Woman’s Death Illustrates How Guns Can Stay In Dangerous Hands In Tennessee (Paige Pfleger, April 29, 2021)
- We Checked In On A Dozen Demands Made By Black Lives Matter Protesters In Nashville. Here’s Where They Stand. (Alexis Marshall, May 27, 2021)
- How we cover policing & criminal justice (Chas Sisk, June 29, 2021)
- A Letter To Listeners (Emily Siner, June 30, 2021)
- Some Waverly Residents Praise God After Surviving Destructive Flood; Others Remember Loved Ones (Damon Mitchell, Aug. 26, 2021)
- Billboard: Behind The Blue Wall — Officers Describe A ‘Toxic’ Culture Within Metro Police (Samantha Max & Chas Sisk, Sept. 29, 2021)
- 3 Key Takeaways From WPLN News Investigates: Behind The Blue Wall (Samantha Max, Sept. 30, 2021)
- Billboard: Three Castles And The Music City — 150 Years Of The Fisk Jubilee Singers (Destiny Birdsong, Joshua Moore, Colleen Phelps & Anita Bugg, Oct. 1, 2021)
- Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn’t Exist. Almost Nothing Happened to the Adults in Charge. (Meribah Knight & Ken Armstrong, ProPublica, Oct. 8, 2021)
- WPLN special newscast: Report on deadly tornadoes, including first report from Mayfield, Ky. (Marianna Bacallao & Blake Farmer, Dec. 11, 2021, 10:58 a.m.)
- The flood closed this Waverly grocery store. Now, residents rejoice at its reopening (Damon Mitchell, Dec. 20, 2021)
- ‘This band puts the B in HBCU’: TSU’s marching band takes national stage in Rose Parade (Paige Pfleger, Dec. 22, 2021)
- 21 stories that brought us joy in 2021, from the WPLN newsroom (Dec. 29, 2021)
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