WTTW-Ch. 11, which led nominations for the 2002 Chicago/Midwest Emmy Awards, duplicated that feat by leading the winners with 12, including statutes for signature series “Artbeat Chicago,” “Inside Chicago” and “Chicago Matters.”
Channel 11 had 32 out of 215 nominations submitted by television stations in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
WMAQ-Ch. 5 followed Channel 11 with eight awards that the station accepted in ceremonies held Saturday night at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. Among Channel 5’s wins was for coverage of last year’s LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, and among those getting awards were Darrian Chapman, who died Oct. 30 of a heart attack at age 37.
With six, WITI-Ch. 6, a Fox station out of Milwaukee, was the third-highest winner, followed by WLS-Ch. 7 and WFLD-Ch. 32, each with five awards.
Bringing up the rear in Chicago were WGN-Ch. 9 with four wins (three going to members of the station’s morning newscast), WBBM-Ch. 2 with three, WPWR-Ch. 50 and Total Living Network with two each, and Fox Sports Net with one.
Among the highlights:
Channel 9’s morning news anchor Larry Potash won an Emmy for best anchor; he shared an Emmy with morning news weather forecaster Paul Konrad for “Wouldn’t You Like to Be a Wiener, Too?” The pair’s partner on the morning news, traffic reporter Robin Baumgarten, won an Emmy for her reports.
Channel 32 and Channel 5 tied for their breaking news coverage of the scaffold collapse last March at the John Hancock Center.
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It was an emotional time for Channel 5’s health reporter Sandy Goldberg, a breast cancer survivor who won an Emmy with anchor Marion Brooks and producer Robert Ray for a feature series on the disease.
Channel 7’s “190 North” newsmagazine won an Emmy in a category created especially for 9/11-related coverage.
Channel 32’s award-winning “The Experiment in Black and White” documentary on race relations (its sequel, which followed 10 straight and gay people living together for a week, just wrapped) won an Emmy.
Two Channel 32 reporters, Larry Yellen and Dane Placko, tied for on-camera reporting.
Another high mark was a tribute to about 20 television personnel who passed away over the last year that “went the full range, from on-air [talent], to television execs, to the behind-the-scene people who are absolutely the vital, critical part of the TV industry,” said Chicago/Midwest NATAS president Jim Disch.
The salutes included those for Chapman and Columbia College television instructor Ed Morris, who created the Peabody-winning program “Book Beat.”
Disch said attendance for the 44th annual awards dinner increased from 425 last year to a little more than 500 this year, “a very good sign that there’s genuine interest in rewarding excellence in television, and that’s what the TV academy is all about.”
Former Channel 2 anchor Carol Marin hosted the evening.