News » ACCESS TUCSON EARNS “BEST IN THE WEST” AWARD

Access Tucson received 4 WAVE awards at the recent Alliance for Community Media Western region Conference held in Ventura, California. With nearly 300 entries, the winners were announced at the WAVE Awards Ceremony on October 27, 2007 in Ventura, California.

The WAVE Awards were created in 1988 to recognize and promote the best in local community programming produced in the Western region of the Alliance for Community Media (ACM). The Western region includes Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada and New Mexico.

The award-winning categories are:

The Community Media Excellence Award, Access Tucson. The judges viewed twenty clips featuring programs created by individual producers and community programming highlighting the work of non-profits and government agencies produced by Access Tucson.

Live/Live to Tape Award, Keith Smith, Suzette Audiss and Debbie Garrett. This episode, “DES Breakthrough Series: ‘Voices of Recovery, Child Protective Services’“ was part of a six-part series called Tucson Vision. Access Tucson trains staff members of non-profit organizations how to host and produce a ½ hour television show.

Programs that Made a Difference/Pro, Access Tucson. “The Tucson Money Faire”. Access Tucson partnered with the Southwest Center for Economic Integrity and the City of Tucson’s Weed and Seed Program to combat predatory lending. The Faire offered free financial services and education to citizens.

Inspiration/Religious/Pro, Access Tucson. “National Day of Prayer 2006”. Access Tucson was asked by Pima County and the local National Day of Prayer Committee to cover and televise the city-wide event held at Reid Park.

Since 1984, Access Tucson has given community-wide voice to not only thousands of individuals, but also to hundreds of groups and organizations. The majority of these organizations are non-profits with little or no budget available for television production services to spread the word about the help they provide. Access Tucson provides, free of charge, television production staff, training, equipment and channel resources to all Tucsonans.


Suzette Audiss, Jim Thomas, Lisa Horner and Keith Smith accept the WAVE Community Media Excellence Award.