The finalists for the 2023 RTDNAC Awards have been announced!
Finalists for the professional categories have been revealed, with student finalists to be announced next week.
The winners will be announced at a banquet at the Charlotte Motorspeedway Club on Nov. 11. Details coming soon!
The 2023 RTDNAC Awards are preparing to accept entries for this year’s competition.
The entry period opens Thursday, June 1. The entry deadline is 8 p.m. Monday, July 17 for professionals and 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 11 for students.
The awards will be announced at a banquet at the Charlotte Motorspeedway Club in November.
The 2022 RTDNAC Awards were presented on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022, at The Speedway Club at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
This year’s featured speaker was Network TV Correspondent Debra Alfarone, who has won Edward R. Murrow and Emmy awards for her work reporting from the White House and U.S Capitol for CBS News.
Details for this year’s RTDNAC/AP annual awards luncheon and convention have been announced!
On Nov. 12, media professionals and journalism students will be honored for the best in broadcast journalism in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Register for the luncheon via this link
This year’s featured speaker is Network TV Correspondent Debra Alfarone, who has won Edward R. Murrow and Emmy awards for her work reporting from the White House and U.S Capitol for CBS News. A former high school dropout, her mission in life is to empower and inspire people to use their voices powerfully. Debra has worked as an anchor at WUSA9 in Washington, D.C., and as a reporter at PIX 11 News in New York City and NBC Connecticut in Hartford, Connecticut.
Convention and Luncheon details
Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022
The Speedway Club, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, N.C.
$40 per person ($20 discount for current students). Online registration and payment required by Tuesday, Nov. 1. Note: On-site registration and payments will not be accepted. Payments by check cannot be accepted.
For more information, contact RTDNAC.
9 a.m. Check-in and networking
9:30 a.m. Convention with featured speaker Network TV Correspondent Debra Alfarone, and the panel discussion, “How to Survive and Thrive in Today’s Newsroom”
11:30 a.m. Awards Luncheon
The finalists for the 2022 RTDNAC Awards have been announced.
There were more than 570 entries in the professional division this year from a variety of stations in North and South Carolina.
The student finalists will be announced in the coming days.
Winners will be awarded during a luncheon at Charlotte Motorspeedway on Nov. 12.
RTDNAC is pleased to announce its 2022 awards competition, recognizing the best of TV, radio and website work in North Carolina and South Carolina.
We are currently accepting entries for the student competition.
The deadline to enter has been extended to Monday, Sept. 12.
The 2022 recipients are Cassia Sari, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Chloe Barlow, of the University of South Carolina.
Cassia Sari, of Cary, NC is a junior pursuing a double major in Journalism and Political Science. She is minoring in Business Administration. Her experience outside the classroom includes a number of internships in Washington DC and Chapel Hill. She will spend the summer of 2022 in New York City as an intern for CNN. Cassia is spending the 2022 spring semester working with “Carolina Week,” UNC’s student run broadcast station. She has served as a reporter as well as working on the technical side of the operation. In the fall of 2022, Cassia is scheduled to travel to Spain for an exchange program with the Universidad in de Navarra and its internationally acclaimed communications program. Cassia is fluent in English and Portuguese. She is conversational in Spanish and continues to master other languages.
Chloe Barlow, of Columbia, SC is a junior at the University of South Carolina majoring in Broadcast Journalism, with a minor in Political Science. She began her journalism experience during her freshman year as a writer for the student run newspaper, “The Daily Gamecock.” In addition, she served as the Community Life Section Editor for the Garnet & Black Magazine. In March of this year, Chloe launched her own podcast which is now part of the University’s student media group. She sees podcasting as means of becoming involved in long-form storytelling. Chloe has set her sights on elevating her podcast subjects and interviews to videos and eventually documentaries.
”RTDNAC was crucial to my Elon experience. From my first year, I was granted access to insight, feedback and mentorships with professionals from across the Carolinas. RTDNAC is a bridge to connect students with professionals.”
Those thoughts come from Meredith Stutz, reporter at WLWT, the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati, Ohio. A graduate of Elon University, she’s one of many past winners of an RTDNAC scholarship.
Each February, RTDNAC awards two $1500 scholarships to two currently enrolled rising juniors or seniors who are pursuing a major course of study with emphasis in broadcast and/or digital journalism.
One scholarship is awarded to a student attending a college or university in North Carolina. Another is awarded to a student in South Carolina.
Now is your time to apply for the 2022 RTDNAC scholarship competition. Applications must be received no later than March 16, 2022.
“I’m so grateful for this scholarship, because it allowed me to focus on my studies and internships,” Stutz said. “Through this focused effort, I was able to have the best possible start of my career in Savannah a few months later (in 2015). Scholarships change lives, and RTDNAC changed mine for the better with ripple effects still felt today.”
The RTDNAC Board of Directors is proud of all of our previous scholarship winners. A number of them, like Stutz, are now working in the professional ranks.
The scholarships are made possible by Capitol Broadcasting Co./WRAL and Hearst Television Inc./WYFF 4 and the RTDNAC Board of Directors.
The Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas presented two Dr. John R. Bittner Scholarships at its annual student workshop on Feb. 27, 2021.
The 2021 recipients are Kirstyn Clark, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Katia Rodengen, of the University of South Carolina.
Kirstyn Clark, of Cary, N.C., is a junior pursuing a double major in broadcast journalism and psychology. Kirstyn has extensive experience in front of and behind the camera for “Sports Xtra,” the sports media program produced by the Hussman School of Journalism. She was part of a team that met the challenge presented by COVID-19 to continue producing the weekly show remotely in 2020. Kirstyn was part of a team that won the RTDNAC Student Awards Competition in 2020 for the Best Student Sportscast.
Katia Rodengen, a junior at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, is majoring in journalism with a minor in media arts. Her goal is to report stories about African-Americans on a national level. In addition to her class assignments, Katia has created an online magazine that features interviews and reviews of local artists. She also has an internship at a recording studio, where she conducts interviews and is involved in graphic design. Katia’s long-term goals include owning and operating her own media company, a clothing line and a talk show.
Each year, RTDNAC awards a $1500 scholarship each to a North Carolina and a South Carolina college student majoring in a field connected to the news industry.
The RTDNAC Scholarships have been named for the late Dr. John R. Bittner, RTDNAC’s first executive manager and a member of the faculty at in the journalism school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Funding for the scholarships has been provided by Capitol Broadcasting Company/WRAL, Hearst Television Inc./WYFF4 and the RTDNAC Board of Directors.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas continued its annual tradition of helping train and mentor the next generation of broadcast and digital journalists.
On Saturday, Feb. 27, news directors and leading journalists met virtually with students to talk about current trends and the future of the news industry. Three interactive sessions were centered around these themes (watch the videos posted at the bottom of the page):
The workshop kicked off with the announcement of this year’s scholarship winners. Congratulations to Kirstyn Clark from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Katia Rodengen from the University of South Carolina! Each received a Dr. John R. Bittner Scholarship worth $1500. Capitol Broadcasting Company/WRAL, Hearst Television Inc./WYFF4, and the RTDNAC Board of Directors fund the scholarships.
In the week following the workshop, RTDNAC board members met virtually with students for one-on-one coaching sessions. They critiqued reels, offered feedback on resumes and web pages, provided advice on interviewing, and shared expectations for the first job.
