WTVG-TV, Channel 13, received nine first-place broadcast awards from the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors on Sunday, including General Excellence for the station's newscasts.

Competing in the Television II category, Channel 13 also took top prize for Best Sportscast and Best Weather, as well as Best Coverage of a Scheduled Event for the 2015 special mayoral election and Best Spot News for the station’s coverage of Mayor Michael D. Collins’ death.

Individually, WTVG anchor-reporter Bill Hormann was named Best Anchor, reporter-anchor Tony Geftos won for Best Broadcast Writing, reporter-anchor Christina Williams took Best Continuing Coverage for her reporting on “absentee owner outage,” and station reporter Lissa Guyton and photographer Todd Gaertner claimed top prize for Best Enterprise Reporting for their piece on the 40th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald tragedy.

Other local winners: WTOL-TV, Channel 11, reporter Mike Holden, who won Best Reporter;  WNWO-TV, Channel 24, weekend sports anchor Alex Glaze, who won Best Sports Feature for his “Playing for Pops” story; and the station's weeknight anchor-reporter Kristi Leigh, who received second place in the Best Anchor category. Leigh and producer Nicole Hahn also won second place for Best Enterprise Reporting for “Drunk on Hand Sanitizer.”

WTVG received 15 awards overall.

Also worth mentioning is the induction of WTVG’s veteran executive news director Brian Trauring into the APME Hall of Fame. 

And last month, WTOL anchor Viviana Hurtado and photojournalist/News Operations Manager Paul Kwapich received the Edward R. Murrow Award in feature reporting for “A Veteran’s Road to Recovery.”

Local stations compete in the Small Market Television division of Region 7, which includes markets in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana. WTOL was the only area recipient of a Murrow award, which is named for legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow and sponsored by the Radio Television Digital News Association.

Contact Kirk Baird at kbaird@theblade.com or 419-724-6734.

First Published May 18, 2016, 4:00 a.m.