Cronkite Student Wins National Radio Championship

Cronkite students win Hearst medallions: (from left) Jill Galus and Colton Shone, radio finalists; and Amber Dixon and Liz McKernan, TV finalists.

Colton Shone, a sophomore in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, is this year’s Hearst Journalism Awards national champion in radio reporting.

Shone won first place in the prestigious competition, which recognizes the best college journalism in the country in television and radio reporting, writing and photography.

Shone won a spot in the 49th annual Hearst championship competition in San Francisco June 2-6 based on his performance in a series of monthly competitions over the past academic year. The finalists were assigned to produce a story about economic recovery efforts in San Francisco. Their work was judged by radio professionals, who named the national winner.

Shone was awarded $5,000.

Students from Marshall University in West Virginia and Syracuse University in New York finished second and third, respectively, in the radio competition.

Other Cronkite students who were finalists in the Hearst championships were seniors Jill Galus of Kalamazoo, Mich., radio; Amber Dixon of Phoenix, television; and Liz McKernan of Phoenix, television. They each won $1,500.

More than 100 accredited journalism schools around the country compete in the annual Hearst Journalism Awards. This year’s entries numbered more than 1,000.

The program was established by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation in 1960 to provide support, encouragement and assistance to journalism education at the college and university level. The program distributes more than $550,000 in scholarships and grants annually.

Career Services Director Mike Wong and Assistant Dean Kristin Gilger coordinate the Hearst Journalism Awards for the Cronkite School.