Little Rock Public Radio reporters took home top honors from several recent journalism contests.
Track One, LRPR’s flagship podcast, won the Radio Television Digital News Association’s 2026 Regional Murrow Award for Best Podcast, Radio (Small Market) for Region 9, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Regional winners automatically advance to the national competition – winners will be announced in August.
LRPR’s news team also took home awards from the Arkansas Press Women 2026 Communications Contest, which were presented at Central Baptist College in Conway last weekend. Politics and Government Reporter Josie Lenora was honored with three first-place awards, including in the Prepared Report category for her story “Arkansas white supremacist group draws international attention.”
Lenora shared a first place award with Morning Edition host/reporter Nathan Treece in the On-the-scene Report category for their coverage of “No Kings” protests in Little Rock. Lenora and Contributing Editor Maggie Ryan also shared a first place award in the Special Programming category for their work on Track One.
Ryan took home a second place award in the Prepared Report category for her story “Black colleges and universities reach out to students left stranded by Job Corps cuts,” which aired nationally on NPR’s All Things Considered. Ryan and former news intern Emma Bertram shared an honorable mention in the On-the-scene report category for their coverage of “No Kings” protests.
Treece received a second place award in the Interview category for his conversation with “Secrets of the Killing State” author Corinna Barrett Lain, and a second place award for On-the-scene reporting for “Saving the ‘Showplace of the South.’”
First-place entrants in the Arkansas Press Women contest will advance to the national competition – winners there will be announced in late September.
Lenora, Ryan, Treece and Bertram are also finalists for the 2026 Diamond Journalism Awards, presented by the Arkansas Society of Professional Journalists. Winners in that competition will be announced on July 25.
