Fox affiliate WTTG-TV (Channel 5) swept the top categories of the local news Emmy awards Saturday night, winning trophies for best newscast, news anchor and weathercaster.
Fifty-seven categories produced 78 winners. WTTG won 14 awards, ABC affiliate WJLA-TV (Channel 7) and Maryland Public Television (MPT) each won 10, NBC affiliate WRC-TV (Channel 4) won five, CBS affiliate WUSA-TV (Channel 9) won four, and PBS affiliate WETA-TV (Channel 26) won one.
The Feb. 7, 2001, edition of WTTG’s “Fox 5 News at Ten” the night a gunman opened fire on the White House was named best newscast.
An August 2001 edition of “Fox 5 News at Ten” and WJLA’s 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts on September 11 also were nominated.
WTTG’s Tracey Neale bested MPT’s Jeff Salkin and WUSA’s Gordon Peterson, Mike Buchanan and Andrea Roane in the news anchor category.
WTTG weatherman Tom Sater tied with WRC’s Bob Ryan for best weathercaster, making it the third consecutive year that Mr. Sater received the Emmy for weathercasting. WTTG’s Sue Palka and Richmond weatherman Mike Goldberg also were nominated.
Chick Hernandez of Comcast SportsNet was named best sports anchor. WTTG’s Dave Feldman was the other nominee.
WTTG and WJLA won most of the reporting Emmys. WJLA’s Andrea McCarren was honored for breaking news coverage of the manhole explosions in Georgetown last summer, and WTTG’s Brian Bolter won for a live report on lasik surgery.
“WTTG does an hour of news every night, which allows them to do slightly longer stories. Sometimes that extra minute of airtime is all it takes to tell a better story,” said Fran Murphy, vice president of the Washington chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which organizes the competition.
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