awards

Honoring the finest in journalism in the South, WLRN staffers swept multiple top spots, showcasing exceptional depth in investigative reporting, feature storytelling, and audience engagement in the 2026 Green Eyeshade Awards.

Presented annually by SPJ Florida, the Sunshine State Awards honor the region’s best journalism from the previous year.

The two Miami news outlets were recognized for their joint investigative package, "Killer Train," which exposed systemic safety failures and a staggering death toll along Florida’s Brightline higher-speed rail corridor.

The Murrow awards were created in 1971 and are named in honor of Edward R. Murrow, a pioneer journalist who set the standard for the highest quality of broadcast journalism.

The IRE award announcement comes only days after the Brightline stories were named as finalists for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting.

The 2026 Pulitzer Prizes recognized the Miami Herald and WLRN journalists as finalists in the Local Reporting category for their joint investigation into the systemic failures that made Florida’s Brightline the deadliest major passenger train in the nation.

The project is one of only 30 entries selected from a pool of over 100 high-stakes submissions evaluated for their impact on U.S. public policy and government accountability.

The WLRN Radio news team walked away with several honors during Saturday night’s 2025 Sunshine State Award ceremony at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale.

WLRN won first place for Feature Reporting in the 2025 Green Eyeshade Awards and won top recognition in the Investigative Reporting category.

WLRN investigative journalists Danny Rivero and Josh Ceballos were awarded “honorable mention” for their stories revealing that Miami city manager Art Noriega had awarded over $440,000 in city contracts to his wife’s furniture company — including furnishings for his own city government office — without transparency, proper disclosure or ethical oversight.

The Esserman-Knight judges said WLRN’s reporting on the Guardianship Program of Dade County "brought attention to a neglected legal process, amplifying the voices of vulnerable individuals and making the issue accessible through multimedia platforms.”

Our digital and radio teams took home 12 first place statewide recognitions, as well as four more finalist recognitions.