Pittsburgh stations are Emmy losers

Pittsburgh stations go home empty in Saturday's regional Emmy awards

Sunday, September 10, 2006

By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh media outlets, which went into Saturday night's 2006 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards with more than 50 nominations, found themselves almost completely shut out by stations and production companies in the Philadelphia market.

Only one Pittsburgh commercial outlet, FSN-Pittsburgh, took home an award, tying with a CN8 show in the Live Sporting Game/Unedited Program or Special category for "The City League Game: Pitt at Duquesne" (Steve Tello, Vice-President & General Manager; Paul Kosuth, Executive Producer; Roger Lenhart, Producer; Mat Williams, Director).

Public station WQED was the only broadcaster in town with something to crow about, winning nine awards (of 28 nominations), including station excellence (Deborah Acklin, general manager).

As for other local nominations (10 for WTAE, nine for KDKA, three for FSN Pittsburgh, six for Channel 4's Wendy Bell), they didn't pan out. Last year WTAE won five awards (two individual achievement awards for Bell) and WQED took home two awards and FSN-Pittsburgh won one award.

At Saturday night's Emmy ceremony in Philadelphia, long-time Pittsburgh broadcaster Myron Cope received the Board of Governors' Award, which honors career achievement "and lasting contributions to the TV industry."

WQED's winning Emmy entries were:

EDUCATION/SCHOOLS PROGRAM FEATURE OR SEGMENT

"On Q: The Cantor's Classroom Visit" - WQED Multimedia

David Solomon, Producer/Writer

Paul Ruggieri, Photographer/Editor

HISTORIC/CULTURAL - PROGRAM FEATURE OR SEGMENT

"On Q: My Father's Story" - WQED Multimedia

Carol Lee Espy, Producer/Writer

Paul Ruggieri, Editor/Photographer

PUBLIC/CURRENT/COMMUNITY AFFAIRS - FEATURE OR SEGMENT

"On Q: From the Ashes" - WQED Multimedia

Beth Dolinar, Reporter/Producer