TV POY 2008

Jeff Ritter is ONPA television Photographer of the Year

Jeff Ritter from WBNS-TV in Columbus is the ONPA Television Photographer of the Year for 2008. Ritter received first place in Feature & News Feature and won Best of Show with his story “Lima Company – A portrait of service” a story well deserving of the award.

Placing second in the POY competition is Eric Frisbee from WHIO-TV in Dayton who placed first in General News. Third place POY went to David Bradford of WJW-TV in Cleveland. Bradford, who has won the POY title the last three years, placed first in Deadline Photography.

Consistency was the key in the POY competition as the top three photographers all placed with four of their five category entries and all three placed in the top three in last year’s competition.

The ONPA Station of the Year award goes to WBNS-TV in Columbus. WJW-TV in Cleveland placed second and WHIO-TV in Dayton placed third.

Contest chairman David Bradford reports that this years entries were all very good and the competition very close. Critiques and comments sheets will be available at the seminar in Columbus.

This was Bradford’s last year running the POY contest as he will now take over the quarterly clip contest and entries should be directed to him and not Bill Reagan. Contest rules are available on the ONPA Web site on the Television Clip Contest page.The first quarter deadline is April 15th.

Photographer of the Year
1st, Jeff Ritter, WBNS-TV, Columbus – 35 points
2nd, Eric Frisbee, WHIO-TV, Dayton – 29 points
3rd, Dave Bradford, WJW-TV, Cleveland – 20 points

Best of Show
Jeff Ritter, WBNS-TV, “Lima Company – A portrait of service”

Station of the Year
1st – WBNS-TV, Columbus
2nd, WJW-TV, Cleveland
3rd, WHIO-TV, Dayton

Spot News
1st , Nate Van Sickle, WBNS-TV, “Cow Chase”
2nd, Scott Doelling, WBNS-TV, “Get Down”
3rd, Lawrence Shields, WCPO-TV, “Taking it’s toll”

General News
1st , Eric Frisbee, WHIO-TV, “Life Line”
2nd, Nate Van Sickle, WBNS-TV,“High Winds”
3rd, Jeff Ritter, WBNS-TV,“White Wedding”
Award of Excellence, David Bradford, WJW-TV, “Politics can be rough”

Deadline Photography
1st , David Bradford, WJW-TV, “Richfield snow”
2nd, Eric Frisbee, WHIO-TV, “A couple of Numbers”

News Feature
1st , Jeff Ritter, WBNS-TV, “The Can Man”
2nd, David Bradford, WJW-TV, “Kindergarten Politics”
3rd, Eric Frisbee, WHIO-TV, “Two Styles”

Sports Feature
1st, Scott Doelling, WBNS-TV, “Ohio Blades”
2nd, Eric Frisbee, WHIO-TV, “Traffic Game”

Feature
1st , Jeff Ritter, WBNS-TV, “Lima Company – A portrait of service”
2nd, Byron Stirsman WHIO-TV, “Cowboy Church”
3rd, Eric Frisbee, WHIO-TV, “Alcohol Test”
Award of Excellence, David Bradford, WJW-TV, “Music Men”

In Depth/Series
1st , Byron Stirsman WHIO-TV, “Male Prositution”
2nd, Eric Frisbee, WHIO-TV, “Economy Special”
3rd, David Bradford, WJW-TV, “Online Gaming predator”

Personality Profile
1st , Billy Muhammed, WJW-TV, “Into it heavy!”
2nd, Jeff Ritter, WBNS-TV, “My First Steps”
3rd, Lawrence Shields, WCPO-TV, “Pray it would never happen again”

Editing
1st , David Bradford, WJW-TV, “End of an era”
2nd, Scott Doelling, WBNS-TV, “Quad Squad”
3rd, Byron Stirsman WHIO-TV, “Nick’s Message”

Judges – KWGN Denver, Colorado