KPLU NEWS IS BIG WINNER IN 2008 JOURNALISM COMPETITION

(Seattle-Tacoma, WA) A number of awards were bestowed upon KPLU in the 2008 Western Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists' Excellence in Journalism Competition. KPLU's Keith Seinfeld took first place in the Radio Documentary category for his four-part series, "The Electric Brain." Austin Jenkins, who represents Northwest News Network and is KPLU's legislative reporter in Olympia, won first place in the Feature News and News Series categories.

Other KPLU reporters were honored with second and third place wins. KPLU Morning Edition host Kirsten Kendrick and KPLU All Things Considered host Dave Meyer shared second place in the Best Newscast category. In the Feature News category, KPLU's Chana Joffe-Walt won second place for her story, "90 year-old is a living history of diabetes treatment," and KPLU's Gary Davis won third place for his story, "The man who fell from Galloping Gertie." In addition to his first place wins, Austin Jenkins garnered second place in the General News category and third place in Spot News.

The competition included radio stations in the five-state Pacific Northwest region - Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.

The 2008 awards banquet was held May 31, 2008 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue.

Ranked as one of the most popular radio stations in the nation, KPLU-NPR News and All That Jazz-is listener-supported and provides local and National Public Radio news, and jazz and blues on 88.5 in Seattle/Tacoma, 89.3 in Port Angeles/Victoria, 90.1 in Olympia and other communities in its signal network, which has the largest footprint in the Northwest. At www.kplu.org, the station provides a live stream of NPR News and All That Jazz; KPLU's 24 hour jazz stream, one of the most listened-to webstreams in the world, is available at www.Jazz24.org. KPLU is also available on HD radio at 88.5 FM. KPLU is a community service of Pacific Lutheran University.