For the third year in a row, and for the fourth time in the last nine years, the TV-news program of Russell County High School known as WLKR News has been named the Best Newscast in Class AA by the Kentucky High School Journalism Association.

What makes this year’s competition unique is that WLKR News also finished second for another one of its newscast entries in the same competition.  

Each year the Current Issues teacher, Chris Godby, enters one newscast from the fall semester staff and one from the spring semester staff in this annual state-wide competition.

This year’s first place entry was from the fall semester staff for their late November episode which included an interview with Gov. Steve Beshear. The second place entry from the spring semester staff included a story about local relief efforts for the Haiti disaster.

As always, Mr. Godby is very proud of the efforts and creativity of his students.  

“This year’s classes had a lot of enthusiasm for this type of work,” he said. “Some were already experienced speakers like news anchors Katie Dalton and Alex Hoover. I was fortunate to have a group that learned technical skills quickly, and was always trying to outdo themselves. Also I was blessed to have Chanson Davenport as the Student Producer for both semesters. He has a very creative eye and you only have to show him how to do something once and he gets it.”

The final newscast of the school year is currently airing on Duo County Cable channel 2, Fridays and Mondays at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.  

A 2009-2010 Season DVD collection is also available by contacting Mr. Godby at Russell County High School.