KTAR story about D-backs longtime organist wins National Murrow Award

PHOENIX — A KTAR News 92.3 FM profile about the longtime organist at Arizona Diamondbacks games won a prestigious National Murrow Award for sports reporting, it was announced Tuesday.

The October piece by Sharon Mittelman told the story of Bobby Freeman, who has been serenading baseball fans in downtown Phoenix since the team’s inaugural season in 1998.

“This is an extremely competitive award, so winning it for KTAR is a great privilege and rather humbling,” Mittelman said.

The Radio Television Digital News Association has issued Edward R. Murrow Awards since 1971 to honor outstanding achievements in electronic journalism.

In April, Mittelman’s story received a Regional Murrow Award, one of three earned by the KTAR newsroom. The others were for breaking news coverage of President Donald Trump’s visit to Phoenix in August 2017 and for overall excellence.

“Writing and editing this story was actually a lot of fun,” Mittelman said. “I had a smile on my face from the moment I started interviewing him until I finished the edit.

“How delightful to do a story on such a fine human being and get an award for it, too.”

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