Southern California’s broadcast journalists gathered in Los Angeles in March to celebrate excellence across radio, podcasts and TV, and KVPR came home a big winner.
The station received three prestigious Golden Mike Awards from the Radio Television News Association (RTNA) of Southern California. The awards include honors for the “Best Open Topic Podcast,” “Best Government and Political Reporting” and in the small station category of Division B, “Best News Reporting.” Of note, the podcast and political reporting awards are in “one division” categories, meaning KVPR won those honors competing against fellow small market stations, as well as the largest public and commercial broadcast stations in Southern California.
The 76th edition of the prestigious awards gala honored “excellence in local broadcast journalism.” They’re presented by the RTNA, which is a non-profit trade industry group dedicated to press freedom and supporting the broadcast news industry in Southern California.
"I'm so proud of the podcast and to win the 'open category' was an amazing surprise,” said KVPR’s Director of Radio, Elizabeth Arakelian, who also hosted the winning Central Valley Daily episode. “It shows KVPR's work can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the top stations in Southern California. This award is a testament to the fine journalism KVPR is doing to bring a voice to our region, and I couldn't be more proud to be a part of the team."
KVPR producer Jonathan Linden says the winning podcast episode was especially memorable. "Our podcast conversation with author Mas Masumoto was one of my favorite interviews last year, and it's an honor to have it recognized by my peers in the journalism field. For the conversation, I really enjoyed learning more about Mas's family background and the process of collaborating with the Fresno Philharmonic. For the podcast, I don't often get to mix in music in conversations, so that also made this conversation memorable."
Associate editor and reporter Kerry Klein says her reporting on the use of AI in law enforcement is a part of KVPR's public service journalism model. "In all this talk of artificial intelligence in the last few years, I felt it was important to highlight an area where it's being used to make very important decisions that can affect people's lives. This piece carried a lot of significant public interest and I'm glad the judges recognized that."
2026 KVPR Golden Mike Award honor:
Best Open Topic Podcast (One Division) – Central Valley Daily, Episode “Author Mas Masumoto On Finding The ‘Sounds Of Our Histories’”
Best News Reporting (Division B) – Kerry Klein - AI is helping Fresno police officers write their reports. Could it outperform them?
Best Government and Political Reporting (One Division) – Joshua Yeager - Can progressives get voters in a ruby red Central Valley district on their side?