KCLU takes home 11 trophies at the 2025 Golden Mike Awards Show

KCLU won more Golden Mike broadcast journalism awards than any other radio or TV station in Southern and Central California at the 75th anniversary Golden Mikes Awards Show, held at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, March 29.

KCLU won more Golden Mike broadcast journalism awards than any other radio or TV station in Southern and Central California at the 75th anniversary Golden Mikes Awards Show. It was held on March 29 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel.

KCLU competes in the Division B bracket for stations that have a small staff size, with five full-time staff members or fewer. The station won 11 awards in Division B. KCLU Senior Reporter Caroline Feraday won one, KCLU Podcast Host/Producer Michelle Loxton won two, and KCLU News Director Lance Orozco won eight.

Feraday won the Golden Mike for "Best News Reporting" for Socialite Who Killed Two Young Boys Goes to Prison, a story about a woman convicted of hitting and fatally injuring two young boys in a Westlake Village crosswalk.

Loxton won the Golden Mike for "Best Podcast Feature Reporting" for Finding Shipwrecks: A Marine Sanctuary May Help, a podcast about little-known shipwrecks off California's Central Coast. She also won the award for "Best Podcast News Reporting" for Changes in California Juvenile Detention, a look at how the role of detention facilities in the state is changing.

Orozco won Golden Mikes in "Best Radio Live Coverage" for The Thousand Year storm! Parts of the Tri-Counties get more than 3" of rain in less than an hour, and "Best Radio Continuing Coverage" for Monster storm hits Santa Barbara, Ventura Counties. The awards were part of his field reporting about a record-setting storm that hit Ventura County in December of 2023, and another storm in January of 2024.

He also won Best Business and Consumer Reporting for Toilet to tap? Central and South Coast water suppliers now have state approval to use the technology, about the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District's cutting edge efforts to recycle water.

He won the award for Best Government and Political Reporting for Sexual Assault Survivors Facing Cuts in Support, a story about how a Central Coast nonprofit would be impacted by federal funding cuts.

Orozco's story Kids Have Fun While Learning About Peace won the award for "Best Radio Light Feature Less Than One Minute." It's the story of a Rotary Club-sponsored event to teach kids about peace.

He won the award for "Best Radio Entertainment Reporting" for Classical Music...and the Accordion, an innovative concert event in Santa Barbara, and honors for "Best Radio Medical and Science Reporting" for Seeing Past Blindness, a Santa Barbara program which teams those with sight issues with voluntters so they can jog, run, and surf.

He also won the Golden Mike for "Best Radio Sports Reporting" for Cowboys Mania! Cowboys Fans Flood Oxnard, a look at how diehard Dallas Cowboys football fans flock to Oxnard for the team's annual summer training camp.

The awards were presented at an event which also included Lifetime Achievement Awards for KNBC Investigative Reporter Joel Grover, KABC Sport Anchor Rob Fukuzaki, KNX Reporter Pete Demetriou, and late KTLA Entertainment Anchor Sam Rubin.

The Golden Mike Awards honor the best in Southern and Central California broadcast journalism and are presented by the Radio Television News Association.

KCLU 2025 Golden Mike Awards, at a glance