LONDON – Coverage of the Bandido biker murders near Shedden, Ont., helped Fanshawe College student Katie Simpson win the Broadcast Educators Association 2006 president’s award for Spot News Coverage, sponsored by MediaIntelligence.ca.
"Katie Simpson is the first of a new breed of broadcast journalism student," said Jim Van Horne, professor, broadcast journalism, at Fanshawe. "Katie is a part of our first graduating class of a collaborative program between the University of Western Ontario and Fanshawe College (both are in London, Ont.)."
Her talent has "been recognized by Corus Entertainment," added Van Horne. "She has been employed at AM 980 in London and also at AM 640 in Toronto. In fact, in Katie’s internship she arrived on a Monday morning… at 9 am. Two hours later, she was reading the 11 a.m. news in a major market.
"Katie’s award winning coverage of the Bandido gang multiple murders at Shedden (near London) is a tribute to her wonderful work ethic," her prof continued. "When the story started to develop, K
atie was the first student called and led the coverage on 106.9 CIXX-FM (Fanshawe’s campus station) for the next four days. She was the third reporter on scene and drove her own car through the back roads of Elgin County to get to the murder location. She did live reports for radio stations in Edmonton, London, Montreal, and Detroit. She was also interviewed live on CBC Newsworld."
She followed that up with daily coverage of the Caledonia First Nation standoff.
Look for Simpson (pictured) behind a mic near you, soon.
