KTVE-KARD Gathers 5 Awards From Louisiana Broadcasters

KTVE, the NBC affiliate in Monroe, La., operated by Nexstar under a shared services agreement and KARD, Nexstar’s Fox affiliate there, combined for five awards from the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters (LAB) in the small-market category at the group’s recent awards presentation.

“This is a record for our TV station, I’m so proud of the entire TV family in Monroe — job well done,” says Randy Stone, KTVE-KARD’s GM.

Rick Boone, KTVE-KARD’s news director, dedicates the awards to every member of the news team. “We are a true news family and when we win, we win together,” Boone says.

KTVE, Station of the Year

KTVE, Best Newscast

KTVE, Best Community Service

KTVE, Promotion of the Year

KARD, Reporter of the Year, Rick Boone

NOTE: It’s worth noting an incident when this reporter’s path crossed with Rick Boone’s immediately after Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005.

I was VP of marketing for Nexstar at the time, manning the company’s satellite truck on the grounds of the Louisiana State Police headquarters in Baton Rouge. Nexstar’s sat truck was one of hundreds parked on the expansive grounds. Reporters from many of the Nexstar stations in the affected areas came and used the sat truck to edit stories and send back live shots to their markets.

Boone was an anchor-reporter at the time at Nexstar’s station in Beaumont, Texas. Boone and Alan Rienstra, a station photographer, drove all night to Baton Rouge from Beaumont immediately after the station’s 10 p.m. newscast. Upon arrival, Boone and Rienstra grabbed some sleep in their car. Sleeping arrangements in Baton Rouge were nonexistent. We all were sleeping inside or under the sat truck, or in one case, on the floor of the WWL-AM New Orleans production bus parked next to our sat truck.

Boone and Rienstra drove down to New Orleans that morning and spent several days there filing reports and sleeping in their car.

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