WDIV-Local 4 honored with MAB ‘Station of the Year Award' for third year in a row

24 total awards including Best Newscast, Breaking News, Investigative Reporting

DETROIT –  WDIV-TV Local 4 is honored to be recognized as Station of the Year, for the third year in a row. The station won for broadcasting excellence in 15 categories from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters - 13 best and 10 merit awards for Market 1. 

“We are absolutely overjoyed to be honored as Station of the Year, once again. It really is a reflection of how hard our entire team works throughout the year. All of our people are dedicated to doing the best they can to serve the community and I know our viewers appreciate that,” said vice-president and general manager Marla Drutz.

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First Place/Best In Category

  • Breaking News: Local 4 News won top honors for its comprehensive team coverage of flooded freeways across Metro Detroit in September 2016
  • Investigative Story: Local 4 Defender Kevin Dietz’s story, “Death Sentence for Back Child Support,” about the death of Jennifer Meyers in a Macomb County jail after being arrested for back child support.
  • Newscast: Local 4 News at 5 p.m. – January 20, 2016
  • News Special: “Failure in Flint: Inside the Water Crisis” – live, hour-long special
  • News Reporter: Shawn Ley
  • Mini-Documentary or Series: “Help Me Hank: The School Project” - Hank Winchester’s year-long effort to transform Detroit’s Thurgood Marshall Elementary and Middle School
  • Weathercast: Chief Meteorologist Ben Bailey’s “Winter Storm” – December 16, 2016
  • Feature: “Redefining Perfection” - Reporter Nick Monacelli and photojournalist Matt Wilson’s story about a young boy’s affinity for baseball despite his rare birth defect
  • Special Interest Programming: “Failure in Flint: Inside the Water Crisis”
  • Photojournalist: John Pompeo
  • Marketing Materials & Promos: “Win at Watercooler”
  • Use of New Media: “Tragedy on the Trail” - ClickOnDetroit’s extensive coverage of April Millsap’s murder
  • Sports: “Opening Day”

Merit Awards

  • Breaking News: “In the Line of Fire/The Shooting of Officer Rose”
  • Investigative Story: “Secret Recordings: Who is the Man on the Tapes”
  • Newscast: Local 4 News at 11p.m. – November 22, 2016
  • New Special: “Surviving the Storm” Ben Bailey and the Local 4Casters’ special to help prepare the public for any type of weather
  • Weathercast: August 24, 2016 “Windsor Tornado”
  • Community Involvement: Special station events – “Flint Water Crisis: 4 Our Families” telethon - “Help Me Hank: The School Project” – “The Faces of Addiction” – “ The Gift of Warmth” telethon
  • News Reporter: Kimberly Gill
  • Marketing Materials & Promos: “Jason’s Bad Dream”
  • Sports: Bernie Smilovitz’s reports on “Sitting Down with Stafford”
  • Use of New Media: “Climate Change”- live, unscripted webcast

MAB’s Broadcast Excellence Awards recognize outstanding achievement in broadcasting by Michigan radio and television stations each year. The awards were announced Wednesday evening at the MAB’s annual Great Lakes Broadcasting Conference in Lansing.