FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 13, 1999
Director of New Media
John Conway
919-821-8592
WRAL Online Named Best Local Television Website in the U.S.
Raleigh, NC —WRAL OnLine has won the prestigious Iris Award from the National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE). As the only national award to recognize quality local programming, NATPE’s annual Iris Awards are the industry’s symbol of programming excellence.
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-hours 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, detailed traffic reports, and community news, including restaurant sanitation ratings and testing scores from the state Board of Education.
The NATPE judges said WRAL OnLine has “consistently rich content,” and “is very interactive with superior navigation.” The judges “loved the virtual station tour.” WRAL-TV’s Director of New Media, John Conway says, “It’s very rewarding to be honored on a national level for the work that has gone into building and maintaining WRAL OnLine. 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, CA; KRON, San Francisco, CA; KSEE Channel 24, Fresno, CA; WEEK-TV Channel 25, East Peoria, IL; WEWS-TV, Cleveland, OH. The award was presented on December 8, 1999, by Lou Ferrigno 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.
Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. is a diversified communications company which owns and/or operates WRAL-TV, WRAL-Digital, WRAL-FM, Microspace, the North Carolina News Network, DTV Plus, Wolfpack Sports Marketing, and Capitol Sports Management in Raleigh, NC; WJZY-TV and WFVT-TV in Charlotte, NC; WILM-TV in Wilmington, NC; WRAZ-TV and the Durham Bulls Baseball Club in Durham, NC; and the Myrtle Beach Pelicans Baseball Club in Myrtle Beach, SC; Capitol Broadcasting Company also founded Local TV on Satellite in Raleigh, NC.
