ABC Owned Stations Win Seven 2021 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, Including Two of Their Top Stations Winning the Overall Excellence Award, the Highest Honor Awarded

WABC-TV New York and KABC-TV Los Angeles Honored With the Overall Excellence Award and KGO-TV San Francisco Won the Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award

ABC Owned Televisions today won seven Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) for news coverage in 2020. Both ABC7/WABC-TV New York, the most-watched station in the country, and ABC7/KABC-TV Los Angeles, the most-watched station in Southern California, received the Overall Excellence award. This is KABC-TV’s second consecutive year receiving the honor. Additionally, WABC-TV received two additional distinctions for Best Newscast and Best News Documentary, while KABC-TV received the distinction for Breaking News, and Best Feature. Adding to the station group’s honors, ABC7/KGO-TV San Francisco won the Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion award.

“I’m extraordinarily proud of the work our stations produce throughout the year. We are intentional and dedicated to delivering purposeful, high-impact and locally relevant news,” said Debra OConnell, president of Networks, Disney Media Entertainment and Distribution. “For WABC-TV and KABC-TV, which reside in the top two markets in the country, to receive the Overall Excellence award during a time when the country experienced an unprecedented pandemic and social unrest illustrates these teams’ unwavering dedication to providing the best news, solutions and resources to the communities we serve.”

ABC7/KGO-TV San Francisco won in a new category, Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion award for Region 2, which covers California, Nevada and Hawaii.

OConnell adds: “KGO-TV intensified their commitment to reporting on issues of systemic racism and social justice with greater context, urgency, and empathy. I’m very proud of the team for their remarkable work last year identifying these issues and telling stories that help positively impact the communities we serve. Winning the ‘Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ award is a testimony to the tremendous dedication and work of the entire team in illuminating these important issues.”

ABC Owned Television Stations’ seven award-winning categories for 2020 news coverage include the following:

WABC-TV New York Region 11, Large Market Television

Overall Excellence Award for ongoing coverage of the pandemic, the civil unrest, breaking news, extreme weather and in-person and virtual community events.
Best Newscast in Large Market Television for “Living Through the Pandemic”
Best News Documentary for “Eyewitness to the Death of John Lennon”

KABC-TV Los Angeles Region 2, Large Market Television

Overall Excellence Award for breaking news coverage, investigative reporting, data journalism, community journalism, and continuing coverage of ongoing stories during the pandemic and social justice movement.
Breaking News Coverage for its special edition of Eyewitness news coverage of the social justice movement, sparked by the killing of George Floyd, throughout Southern California.
Best Feature Reporting for “FACEism: The Only One” by Eyewitness News anchor David Ono. The feature examines the damaging effects of stereotypes toward Muslims in America and the battle to teach love and respect for all people.

KGO-TV San Francisco Region 2, Large Market Television

Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusionfor “From Anger to Action,” which is part of KGO-TV’s “Building a Better Bay Area” ongoing initiative to devote more time and resources to covering major stories around race and social justice that directly impact the quality of life in the Bay Area.

The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) sponsors The Edward R. Murrow Awards and honors outstanding achievements in broadcast and digital journalism.

ABC Owned Television Stations’ seven award-winning entries will advance to the National Murrow Award competition.

About ABC Owned Television Stations
Disney Media Entertainment & Distribution’s eight owned ABC stations are multiplatform leaders in local news and information. Collectively No. 1 across all U.S. television, reaching 23% of households and more than 34 million Total Viewers and 62 million digital visitors a month, the eight stations are comprised of WABC-TV New York, KABC-TV Los Angeles, WLS-TV Chicago, WPVI-TV Philadelphia, KGO-TV San Francisco, KTRK-TV Houston, WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham and KFSN-TV Fresno. The stations also deliver locally sourced storytelling to more than 14 million viewers across America through its digital-first national lifestyle brand and broadcast channel, Localish. Most recently, the stations received five Broadcast & Cable awards, including in the 2020 Best in Local TV Awards category as Station Group of the Year for its innovative and next-generation news reporting, and in the major market category for 2020: Best News Coverage, Best Digital Multiplatform or Website, Best Investigative Reporting Station Group and Best Public Affairs Programming, illustrating the group’s strength and ever-increasing growth and reach in the multiplatform space.