23 Jan WREG Wins Public Affairs Emmy Award
Station Partners with Volunteer Program to Help Students Learn to Read
Memphis, TN January 23, 2018 – WREG-TV News Channel 3, Tribune Broadcasting’s Memphis television station, is pleased to announce WREG was honored with an Emmy Award for its Public Affairs initiative “Team Read” from the Midsouth Regional Emmy Chapter in Nashville.
“This is a great honor for the station and underscores our commitment to excellence, community service, and advocacy,” said News Channel 3 President and General Manager Ron Walter.
Research shows if students are not reading proficiently by third grade, they are four times more likely to drop out of school. To help combat illiteracy, WREG developed its Team Read initiative, a partnership with Shelby County Schools in Memphis, to create a volunteer tutor program to teach area second graders to sight read a list of 1000 words. The partnership, which is now in its second year, focuses its efforts on 24 Memphis-area public schools in the county, where previously only 30 percent of third graders were able to read proficiently at grade level. As a result of WREG’s outreach, over 1,000 people have volunteered for Team Read to tutor students, leading to a triple digit increase in reading levels in the district.
Said News Director Bruce Moore, “I’m proud of everyone’s commitment to the goal of helping kids, and for how well the team shared the story and got the community invested and involved.”
Named along with Moore on the Emmy award were Anchors Markova Reed, April Thompson, and Alex Coleman, Director and Production Supervisor John Gwin and Special Projects Producer Michael Suriani, who accepted the award for WREG.
Click to learn more about Team Read, and the research behind it http://wreg.com/team-read/
WREG-TV News Channel 3 is owned by Tribune Media Company (NYSE: TRCO) home to a diverse portfolio of television and digital properties driven by quality news, entertainment and sports programming. Tribune Media is comprised of Tribune Broadcasting’s 42 owned or operated local television stations reaching more than 50 million households, national entertainment network WGN America, whose reach is approximately 80 million households, Tribune Studios, and a variety of digital applications and websites commanding 60 million monthly unique visitors online. Tribune Media also includes Chicago’s WGN-AM and the national multicast networks Antenna TV and THIS TV. Additionally, the Company owns and manages a significant number of real estate properties across the U.S. and holds a variety of investments, including a 32% interest in CareerBuilder, LLC and a 31% interest in Television Food Network, G.P., which operates Food Network and Cooking Channel. For more information please visit www.tribunemedia.com.
Jessica Bellucci
VP, Communications
Tribune Broadcasting
O: 212-210-2626
@BellucciPR
jessica@tribunemedia.com