As the only national award to recognize quality local programming, NATPE's annualIris Awardsare the TV industry's symbol of programming excellence. This marked the first year for NATPE's web site award.
WRAL-TV was one of the first local TV stations in the country with a fully functional news and information Web site. WRAL OnLine provides 24-hour news, with a focus on the local community. The site provides breaking news on a national, regional and local level, as well as weather, sports, detailedtraffic reports, and community information, includingrestaurant sanitation ratingsandtesting scoresfor public schools statewide.
The NATPE judges said WRAL OnLine has "consistently rich content," and "is very interactive with superior navigation." The judges "loved the virtual station tour."
"It's very rewarding to be honored on a national level for the work that has gone into building and maintaining WRAL OnLine," said John Conway, director of new media for WRAL-TV. "We often hear from our visitors that they like our site, and now we know that our peers in local television throughout the country admire our work, too."
WRAL OnLine was chosen best among more than forty entries. The other finalists were:KQED, San Francisco, Calif.;KRON, San Francisco, Calif.;KSEEChannel 24, Fresno, Calif.;WEEK-TVChannel 25, East Peoria, Ill.; andWEWS-TV, Cleveland, Ohio.
The award was presented on Dec. 8, 1999, by Lou Ferrigno, who now is working on a project for indieTV.com, at a luncheon and ceremony at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.
WRAL OnLine debuted January 1996. The site, which now averages more than 6 million page views a month, was named best news Web site in April by the Radio Television News Directors Association of the Carolinas. According to Media Metrix reports, the WRAL OnLine is the most popular local web site among Raleigh-Durham Internet users.
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