City TV Show Brings Home the Gold
Date:
10/27/2008 (Last updated: 10/28/2008)Summary:
The City of Yuma’s Strategic Communications staff brought back two “prestigious” awards from the Alliance for Community Media’s 2008 Western Region Conference in Denver this past weekend.Contact:
Yuma, Arizona — The City of Yuma’s Strategic Communications staff brought back two “prestigious” awards from the Alliance for Community Media’s 2008 Western Region Conference in Denver this past weekend.
The program Yuma le Informa, a City of Yuma-produced program that airs on local cable, won Western Access Video Excellence (WAVE) awards for Municipal/Government Access (professional) and for Programming That Made a Difference (professional). Additionally, Yuma le Informa had been nominated as a finalist in Special Audience Programming (professional).
“This is a huge honor for our staff,” said Greg Hyland, Director of Communications and Public Affairs for the City. “Not only is it the first time we were selected as a WAVE finalist, but the competition for the prestigious WAVE awards is outstanding. Finalists in this year’s awards came from larger cities like Tucson, Sacramento, Denver and Berkley, and from Southern California and Bay Area cities.”
City Administrator Mark Watson added he was proud of the effort the City’s Communications staff makes to get in touch with citizens. “By having programming in Spanish as well as English, more people in our community have access to us, and can understand more fully the range of what their city is doing for them.”
The WAVE Awards “grant recognition to the producers of outstanding local programs for or by public, educational and government access facilities and by local organization departments of cable systems,” according to literature provided to attendees at the conference. “The awards distinguish creative local productions addressing community needs, developing diverse community participation in the production process, challenging conventional television formats and moving viewers to look at television in a different way.”
The award was accepted by Joel Barrera, Television Production and Operations Manager for the City of Yuma, who produces Yuma le Informa, and Geoff Montgomery, Video Production and Operations Specialist who produces CityNews for City cable channel City 73.
Yuma le Informa, which began airing one year ago on the City’s Spanish-language channel, Ciudad 72, is hosted by Javier Morales, the City’s International Relations Specialist.
Episodes of Yuma le Informa, as well as other City of Yuma television programs, are available as video on demand on both the Internet via the City’s web site - http://www.yumaaz.gov/ - and on Time Warner Cable Channel 71.
While these are the City’s first WAVE awards, the City’s Strategic Communications staff has been well recognized in recent years. The City has received awards from the City-County Communications and Marketing Association (3CMA) and the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals, which included the Savvy and Hermes awards.
Members of the media may contact Public Affairs Coordinator Dave Nash at (928) 373-5015, or (928) 941-0199, or Director of Communications and Public Affairs Greg Hyland, CPM at (928) 373-5023 or (928) 580-4751.
