MISSOULA –

Montana Public Radio (MTPR) News Director Sally Mauk and MTPR Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Boyce received a total of four awards from the Northwest division of the Society of Professional Journalists. Part of the 2011 Excellence in Journalism Contest, the awards were announced May 19 in Portland, Ore., and Seattle.

Mauk won a first-place award for a general column in a medium-sized newspaper for her columns that are published twice-monthly in the Missoulian. Mauk often bases her columns on her on-air feature interviews on “Montana Evening Edition,” heard weeknights at 5:30 p.m. on MTPR.

Boyce won three awards, including first place in radio feature news reporting for his story on the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary Montana-born television broadcaster Chet Huntley. Boyce traveled to Big Sky Resort, built by Huntley in the 1970s, to add dimension and depth to his profile. You can hear the story at http://boycedan.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/chet-huntleys-montana-legacy/.

Boyce received a third-place award for a series of stories resulting from his 2011 summer internship in Germany. He compared climate change perspectives by visiting a glacier in Germany and Glacier National Park, did an in-depth analysis of the German Beer Purity Law and how it’s followed by one Missoula brewery, and profiled a German expatriate who lives in Polebridge.

Boyce also received a first-place sports reporting award for a news report produced during his tenure as a reporter with KBZK-TV in Bozeman, prior to joining MTPR. The story, “A Montana Marlin,” chronicled Boyce’s paddlefishing trip with his parents. KBZK is in the “121-210 markets” category, representing smaller stations.

The Northwest Region of SPJ includes Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. More than 2,100 entries from more than 250 news outlets and journalists were received for the contest. The Society of Professional Journalists (http://www.spj.org) is dedicated to the perpetuation of a free press as the cornerstone of our nation and our liberty.

MTPR broadcasts as a public service of The University of Montana and is heard on eight transmitters and multiple translators in western and central Montana. For more information visit http://mtpr.org.

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