North Texas Daily

Trent Johnson/Staff Writer

North Texas Television recently took home five awards at the 10th annual Lone Star EMMY Awards.

The Lone Star EMMYs, which recognize excellence in television, are presented by the Lone Star Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

The UNT TV station was recognized for its excellence in its newscasts and various other projects.

UNT edged out schools such as Richland College, Texas State University and Texas Christian University for the awards in categories such as College/University Student Production-Newscast and College/University Student Production-Editor.

Though winning is nice, ntTV station manager Phyllis Slocum said she is most proud of the station’s nine nominations.

“It is a huge, huge recognition for the work done by UNT students,” Slocum said. “When anyone is nominated – let alone wins – it means that the creation, that product, that program, is considered to be among the best of its category.”

The station always strives to earn EMMYs, but five is the most the UNT station has ever garnered.

However, Slocum said that even though the number of EMMYs has grown, the main goal of producing the best consistent product they can will remain the same, and hopefully more accolades will follow.

“This was a bit of a shock, to do this well,” Slocum said. “You know the nine nominations was unexpected as well, but you never know it all comes down to what we have to offer.”

The excitement of winning is a nice morale booster for the staff, said executive producer for “North Texas Now” and converged broadcast media senior Coralee Trigger.

Trigger won the College/University Student Production- Editor award, and a $2,000 scholarship for her film “A Berry Austin Story.”

“We work our butts off every day,” Trigger said. “To take a moment to celebrate our accomplishments provides us a nice jolt of energy.”

Trigger said she is looking forward to working on new projects that she hopes will bring more gold to the ntTV trophy case.

“You know, it’s different thinking about contest season,” Trigger said. “I’m always worried about content, whether it be online, on air or anything else, but we are going to submit ‘North Texas Now’ and some other programs to the College Television Awards, which is a national award ceremony, so that’s the next batch of submissions.”

Converged broadcast media junior Ethan Hutchins looks forward to the challenge of living up to the station’s success as he takes over as the news director this upcoming semester.

“Going into it, you expect to win because of the awards won in the past,” Hutchins said. “I have high expectations and hope to win as many as they did this year, next year. You’re always trying to get better and submit higher quality pieces, and we’re always trying to grow as a station.”

The station’s other awards included College/University Student Production-News: General Assignment, College/University Student Production-Long Form (Fiction and Non-Fiction) and College/University Student Production-Community/Public Service (PSAS).