Editor’s note: We have corrected the headline of this story.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — News 13 had a big night Saturday at the annual Florida Broadcast Journalists Association Awards in Orlando.
The news team won a total of 10 first-place awards and 8 runner-up awards, including best breaking news coverage for our work on Chipola complex fires. We also won Best Political/Government Coverage for “The seat of the local elections” and our work on election night coverage. The awards are given for television news coverage broadcast during the year 2022.
Chloe Sparks was nominated best journalistThomas Shults won as the best multimedia journalistand News 13 swept the weather category with Chief Meteorologist Ross Whitley winning best meteorologist and Grace Thornton as finalist in the category.
News director Tom Lewis was a finalist in the Hard Journalism Series category for “Remembering Renee.”
News 13’s Sports and Digital departments won Best Digital Programming for “Friday Night Fever Afterburn.”
Shults won the overall task award for his story police harassment. It was also a Hard News Finalist for “Rescue pilot from Ukraine,”; for health reports for “Fireworks fire,”; and for weather reports for “Tornado destroys home.”
Emily Mcleod won the investigative series award for her stories on “Walton County Auditor.” McLeod was also a finalist for transportation reporting for “Parents concerned about school safety.”
Jake Holter won the health reporting series category for his work on the closing of Healthmark. It also won Best for Climate/Environmental Story for “Ian affects the tides.” It was also a feature finalist for a story about a “Vintage fire truck.”
Grace Thornton was a finalist for a light franchise piece for “going green.”
