KUNC president and CEO Neil Best discussed his public radio station’s recent expansion and the future of community radio in a May 25 Fireside Chat at the Denver Press Club. The program, sponsored by the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, was taped by KUNC and will be broadcast at a later date.
Neil Best
Neil Best, president and CEO of KUNC, will discuss the public radio station’s recent changes and the future of community broadcasting at a Fireside Chat at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 25, at the Denver Press Club, 1330 Glenarm Place.
The program, sponsored by the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, is free and open to the public.
The Greeley-based station has won numerous national, regional and state awards, including Colorado Broadcasters Association, Colorado Associated Press and SPJ’s Region 9 honors. It won two consecutive national Sigma Delta Chi awards in its radio category, in 2014 for feature reporting and in 2013 for breaking news. In April, KUNC won two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in journalism.
In Februry, KUNC, 91.5FM, announced it had purchased the broadcast license of KJAC, 105.5FM, to divide its news and music programming. KUNC, which had featured a mixture of NPR and local news and music, now provides news and information programs throughout the day. With a series of translaters, KUNC programming is broadcast throughout Colorado.
The format for KJAC, based in Fort Collins and which previously featured ESPN sports programming, was changed to a Music Discovery station.
KUNC also hired veteran broadcast and print journalist Michael de Yoanna as director of news content to bolster its local news coverage.
Metered street parking is available on Glenarm Place in front of the press club and in the public lot southwest of the club. The meters accept credit cards.
The first in a statewide series of Pulitzer Prize discussions was conducted May 13 at The Denver Post featuring, left to right, former photo editor John Sunderland, reporter Kevin Simpson and interim editor Lee Ann Colacioppo. The three talked about The Post’s Pulitzer-winning coverage from the Columbine High School shooting to the Aurora theater shooting. Other events will be June 16 at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, Sept. 13 at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, and Sept. 15 at Colorado State University and The Fort Collins Coloradoan. A late September event will be scheduled in Grand Junction, The programs, which will feature different Pulitzer winners at each location, are sponsored by the Colorado Press Association, the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and The Post. Photo by Amy Brothers/The Denver Post
The Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Auraria SPJ campus chapter conducted a Diversity in Media program on May 5 at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Left to right: Daniel Day, Michel Hansen, Nic Garcia, Dayna Himot, Steve Haigh, Angela Jackson, Gabrielle Bryant, Ed Otte, Brandon Sanchez. Haigh, director of Met Media, Garcia, deputy bureau chief of Chalkbeat Colorado, and Bryant, Colorado Public Television 12 producer and president of the Colorado Association of Black Journalists, were panelists. Otte, president of SPJ Colorado Pro, was the program moderator.
Linda Shapley
Thirteen years does not seem like a large amount of time for a groundbreaking change in how a breaking news event would be covered — and great reporting and journalism will always be an essential part of a prize-winning result.
However, two events of national significance that required the efforts of the entire Denver Post newsroom — the Columbine High School shooting and the Aurora theater shooting — present an interesting study in the ways that changing technology and changing readership affected that coverage.
Kevin Simpson
Members of The Denver Post staff will talk about those differences in a free forum on Friday, May 13, at the Post auditorium as part of a joint effort between the Colorado chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Colorado Press Association and The Denver Post to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize.
The discussion features reporter Kevin Simpson, former photo editor John Sunderland and director of news operations Linda Shapley, all of whom were on the staff for both events. The last part of the forum will include a Q&A discussion.
John Sunderland
The free program will run from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at The Denver Post Auditorium. Click here to register.
Colorado Pro Chapter -- Society of Professional Journalists 
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