WMUK-FM has been recognized by the Public Media Journalists Association for its work during 2023.
WMUK’s regular feature Why’s That won first place in Division A for Audience Engagement Program.
The program answers questions from audience members about life in our region. Last year, reporters answered questions about whether a Hard Rock Café is still coming to the former Gibson Guitar factory in Kalamazoo, whyso many beavers live at Asylum Lake in Kalamazoo and whether Bronson Hospital’s sick leave policies are encouraging employees to not test themselves for COVID.
WMUK’s series on the experience of a human trafficking survivor in Kalamazoo took second place for series in Division A. It Happens Here focused on the systemic failures surrounding the case of Stacy Chambliss before, during and after she was trafficked for two months in 2019.
It Happens Here has also won a Broadcast Excellence Award from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters and a regional Murrow Award from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association. It is now under consideration for a national Murrow Award.
WMUK also took second place in the spot news category for a story on volunteers working to put 100 unhoused people in hotels for the Christmas holiday. Kalamazoo Together Volunteers for the Unhoused provided food and four nights in a hotel in late December for unhoused people in Kalamazoo.