KJZZ has won four regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for large market radio news coverage in 2021.

The announcement was made Thursday by the Radio Television Digital News Association. 

KJZZ won in the Continuing Coverage, Investigative Reporting, News Series and Sports Reporting categories. 

Revisit the award-winning stories from Kendal Blust, Scott Bourque, Matthew Casey and Ben Giles.

Continuing Coverage

2020 Arizona election audit by Ben Giles

Ben Giles/KJZZ

The audit site at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix on April 22, 2021.

Arizona Senate Republicans hired a conspiracy theorist with ties to former President Donald Trump to investigate the 2020 election in Maricopa County, home to the state’s largest voting population. A process billed as a weeks-long endeavor instead took months of twists and turns, allegedly in the name of easing voters’ concerns about election fraud. Instead, the partisan review further fueled misinformation about the election process.

Investigative Reporting

"Aguas negras: In 2 Mexican beach towns, raw sewage is running through the streets" by Kendal Blust 

Kendal Blust/KJZZ

Pedestrians cross a street in Guaymas where sewage has been pouring out of a manhole because of a clogged pipe.

This special reporting project from KJZZ's Fronteras Desk and the Arizona Daily Star explored an ongoing sewage crisis in Guaymas, Sonora. The port city’s deteriorating system frequently sends raw sewage running through the streets, onto beaches and into the Sea of Cortez. 

News Series

Discharged: Becoming a Veteran by Scott Bourque

Scott Bourque/KJZZ

Marine Corps veteran Dan Bannick holds the uniform he wore when he was in the Marines.

Becoming a Veteran podcast producer Scott Bourque, an Afghanistan veteran, looked into some of the root causes of the most prominent issues facing the Arizona veteran community. The first part of this three-part series explores how the military-to-veteran transition fails to take the significant cultural differences between the military and civilian world into account. 

Sports Reporting

"Legal sports betting officially begins in Arizona" by Matthew Casey

KJZZ

Arizona gamblers can bet on sports using apps.

Arizona set up sports gambling in less than 150 days. What started in September 2021 is key to an updated compact with tribal nations that took around 2,000 days to negotiate. Also a major part of the deal is that Arizonans don’t have to be inside a casino or venue to make a bet because they can access the sportsbook on their phones.

→ See more awards won by KJZZ