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WGCU News Wins 2018 National Murrow Award

The Radio Television Digital News Association has awarded the WGCU News team the national Edward R. Murrow Award for Breaking News Coverage for "Hurricane Irma Hits Southwest Florida." 

This win comes after the team won four Regional Murrow Awards for "High Arsenic Levels in Pine Island Ignored by DEP, Lee County," Investigative Reporting; "Gov. Scott Visits Everglades City, Still Without Power," Hard News; "Experience a 'Dark Sky Park' in Florida," Excellence in Writing; and "City of Fort Myers' Toxic Dumping in Dunbar Neighborhood," Continuing Coverage.

WGCU competes in RTDNA Region 13 (Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
Jessica Meszaros is a reporter and host of Morning Edition at WUSF Public Media, and former reporter and host of All Things Considered for WGCU News.