KUNC News is excited to announce that it has won two PMJA Awards.
PMJA, which stands for the Public Media Journalists Association, “supports and advocates for journalists working in public media.”
The awards include first place for an education feature. The award went to Leigh Paterson’s “Want to feel better? In Steamboat Springs, you could be prescribed guitar lessons or drawing classes.” The story looks at a non-medical approach to wellbeing that connects people to local activities, from nature walks to guitar lessons.
A second-place award was given to an episode of In The NoCo. Titled “Rock climbing without ropes comes with risks and rewards. This climber set out to crunch the numbers,” the interview looks at the risks and rewards associated with a type of rock climbing called scrambling. The sport involves no ropes and high consequences. In The NoCo is produced by Erin O’Toole and Brad Turner.
Features from Rachel Cohen, KUNC's local reporter for the Mountain West News Bureau, also won several awards. That includes a second-place education feature for "Music is making a comeback at this Colorado middle school" and second place for science and technology with "Scientists chase storms through the Mountain West to study hail’s growing toll."
Cohen, along with Boise State Public Radio reporter Murphy Woodhouse, also won first place investigative reporting on the West’s insurance crisis, including stories such as "A home insurance crisis is building in the Mountain West. State leaders are struggling to respond."
These latest awards add to KUNC’s recent wins at the Colorado Broadcast Association Awards of Excellence, SPJ’s 2026 Top of the Rockies Excellence in Journalism and regional Edward R. Murrow Awards.