1999 Max Karant Awards for Excellence in Aviation Coverage: Winners and honorable mentions
Each year, AOPA honors reporters whose entries in the Max Karant Journalism Awards competition best demonstrate fair, accurate and insightful coverage of General Aviation during the preceding year. Two winners covered the current or historical involvement of women in aviation.Print category winner Mary Grady won for her Providence Journal feature on today's woman pilots entitled, "Their Dreams Took Wing." She covered the stories and motivations of young women pilots in the Rhode Island-Southern Massachusetts area.
In the Television—Program Length category, Dawn Bayman and Jennifer Lewis won for "Women in the Sky: Ninety-Nines of the Northwest" on public station KSPS in Spokane. The program told the story of women pilots who " bucked the system successfully, and led the way for all of us."
The Television News or Short Feature category was won by Karen Sunderman and Steven Ash of WDSE-TV in Duluth, Minnesota. A program in their "Venture North" series profiled "The Flying Houseboat Mechanic" who uses his J-3 Cub seaplane to make "house calls" for boaters in need on lakes throughout Northern Minnesota.
The 1999 Radio category winner is Art Cronk of WENG-AM in Englewood, Florida. Cronk's talk show gave equal time to airport supporters and opponents alike for an airing of long-simmering issues involving Englewood's Buchan Field residential airport. Ultimately, a ground swell of public opinion defeated a push to close the field.
Winners who garnered 1999 Honorable Mentions are:
| Mary Pickett | "Montana's High Flyers" | The Billings Gazette | |
| Bill Sweetman | "Choppers to the Rescue" | Popular Science | |
| TV/CABLE NEWS OR SHORT FEATURE | |||
| Tim Jensen | "A Banner Day" | KMGH-TV | Denver |
| Pat Woodard | "A Banner Day" | KMGH-TV | Denver |
| Susan Carter | "Angel Flight" | News Channel 8 | Springfield, VA |
| TV/CABLE PROGRAM LENGTH | |||
| Frank G. Benesh | "Aviation Journal" | Southwest Oakland Cable Commission | Farmington Hills, MI |
| RADIO | |||
| Joe Scheibinger | "For the Love of Aviation" | Backstage Live News Talk 1450 KFIZ | Fond du Lac, WI |
| Colleen Condron | "Girls Can't Be Pilots" | WBNI-FM Radio | Fort Wayne, IN |
Entrants who did not win monetary awards are eligible to enter next year's competition. The postmark deadline is April 17. Entry forms are available on the AOPA Web site, aopa.org. There is no entry fee. Questions may be directed to Patricia L. Rishel, AOPA Communications Division, 301-695-2157, or pat.rishel@aopa.org.
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