KUSC wins LA Press Club awards
Classical KUSC staffers were honored for creating the year’s best radio personality profile at the Los Angeles Press Club’s National Entertainment Journalism Awards on Nov. 18. The station also won a second-place award for radio feature.
Overall, the station received five nominations for segments that aired on its weekly Arts Alive program, which airs Saturday mornings at 8 a.m. and is archived as a podcast at kusc.org
Arts Alive covers music, film, dance, visual arts and theater in Southern California and beyond.
The winning personality profile award was given to Arts Alive producer Katie McMurran, host Brian Lauritzen and executive producer Gail Eichenthal for an interview Eichenthal did with actor Gary Oldman, star of the film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which aired last February during the Oscar race. The technical director for the interview (and the weekly show) is Mark Hatwan. A podcast of the winning profile can be heard at bit.ly/10pEOCO
According to the award’s judge: “It’s a revelation to hear Gary Oldman speaking in his authentic south London accent that American filmgoers rarely hear as he chuckles over how stressed out he used to get when creating his heavy-duty characters, going out to get loud and drunk. Even today, though calmer, he laughs in this fascinating interview! When you hear Dracula crying, that’s Gary crying.”
Eichenthal remembered being so elated following the actual interview that she pirouetted back into the KUSC reception area. “He was so open, so real. It was a delight to talk to him,” she said.
Classical KUSC won second place in the radio feature category for McMurran’s work on the segment “Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles Performs for Tolerance.” The third category the station was nominated in was for criticism involving film reviews by Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan in conversation with Eichenthal.
The station received five nominations for segments that aired on Arts Alive.