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CBC B.C. wins 19 RTDNA awards

CBC's B.C. team has scooped up 19 RTDNA regional awards from the Association of Electronic Journalists, including a dozen awards for CBC Radio, four digital awards, two television awards and one multiplatform award.

Former CBC News personality Cecilia Walters was also honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her exceptional career that spanned more than 40 years.

The awards were presented at the RTDNA's annual banquet at the Pan Pacific hotel in Vancouver on Saturday night.

Digital

Adrienne Clarkson Award – Diversity

- Traditional First Nations culture may help reduce teen suicides – Rafferty Baker

Data Storytelling Award

- Every parking ticket issued in Vancouver last year – Justin McElroy

Sam Ross Award – Editorial / Commentary

- Big Oil v. Big Whale: will pipeline trump orca? – Jason Proctor

Gord Sinclair Award – Live Special Events

- Royal Visit – Maryse Zeidler, Tina Lovgreen, Mike Laanela, Lien Yeung

Multiplatform

​Dan McArthur Award – In-depth/Investigative

- The Frontline of Fentanyl – Natalie Clancy, Eric Rankin, Manjula Dufresne, Yvette Brend, Justin McElroy, Steve Lus, Amar Parmar, Cliff Shim, Fred Gagnon, Karen Burgess

Radio

Adrienne Clarkson Award – Diversity

- Finding Refuge – Catherine Rolfsen, Bal Brach, Alison Broddle

Byron MacGregor Award – Best Newscast (Large Market)

- Nov. 29, 2016: Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion – CBC Vancouver – Robert Zimmerman, Richard Zussman, Farrah Merali, Kamil Karamali, Belle Puri, Jesse Johnston

Charlie Edwards Award – Spot News

- Canadian Tire Stabbing – CBC Vancouver – Robert Zimmerman, Megan Batchelor, Maryse Zeidler

Dave Rogers Award – Short Feature (Small/Medium Market)

- Expedition to Earth – Daybreak South, CBC Nelson – Bob Keating

Dave Rogers Award – Short Feature (Large Market)

- Facing Fentanyl: A young addict and his mom – Betsy Trumpener

Dave Rogers Award – Long Feature (Small/Medium Market)

- The 'Krazy Canadian' – Daybreak South, CBC Nelson – Bob Keating

Dick Smyth Award – Creative Use of Sound

- Fault Lines: 24 hours after – Lee Rosevere, Shiral Tobin, Johanna Wagstaffe, Jessica Linzey

Gord Sinclair Award – Live Special Events

- Pipeline Persuasion – BC Almanac and Alberta at Noon – Gloria Macarenko, Rob Brown, Heather Moriarty, Charlie Cho, Chris Robinson, Erica Stark, Ute Schaffland, Bernard Graham, Shiral Tobin

Peter Gzowski Award – Radio News Information Program

- Avalanche Coverage – CBC Prince George and CBC Prince Rupert, Daybreak North – Robert Doane, Carolina de Ryk, Andrew Kurjata, Wil Fundal, George Baker, Betsy Trumpener

Ron Laidlaw Award – Continuing Coverage

- Fault Lines – Johanna Wagstaffe, Jessica Linzey, Lee Rosevere, Shiral Tobin

Sports Feature Reporting Award (Small/Medium Market)

- Women's World Hockey Comes to Kamloops – Daybreak Kamloops – Jennifer Chrumka, Rob Polson

Sports Feature Reporting Award (Large Market)

- Field of Dreams: Uganda's improbable journey to the Softball World Championships – Jeremy Allingham

​Television

Dave Rogers Award – Short Feature (Large Market)

- Forever Young – Tina Lovgreen, Dillon Hodgin

Dave Rogers Award – Long Feature (Large Market)

- A Night in the ER: Fentanyl Crisis Ground Zero – Natalie Clancy, Fred Gagnon, Amar Parmar, Manjula Dufresne

Lifetime Achievement Award — Cecilia Walters

Over the course of her more than 40-year-long career, Cecilia Walters covered a range of stories for different networks, right across the country.

She was a fixture — and icon — in Vancouver's journalism market.

Her career at CBC Vancouver began in television, where she was co-anchor of the CBC Evening News with Bill Good from from 1982 to 1988.

Walters then moved back into radio, hosting B.C. Almanac on CBC Radio One.

She spent the last two decades of her career delivering breaking news with The Early Edition as the early morning newsreader.

Walters won numerous awards over the course of her career, including a Jack Webster Award and an RTDNA award.

Helen Slinger, the former executive producer who hired Walters, summed up her journalism prowess best:

"She is one of those rare people who is as good a researcher as she is a reporter, as she is a writer, as she is a producer, as she is a presenter. She does all of that leading always with story, not with ego."