The winners of the 2007 Minnesota Associated Press Broadcasters' awards contest were announced recently, including several for Minnesota Public Radio's newsroom in the Radio Class III category (stations with four or more full-time news persons).

Taking first place in the Series/Special category was "Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: The Invisible Disorder" by Tom Robertson (Bemidji) and Cara Hetland (Sioux Falls), a 14-part series providing an in-depth look at the effects of alcohol on an underserved and misunderstood population: unborn children. Visit the MPR Web site for full transcripts and pictures from "Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: The Invisible Disorder."

Robertson is a reporter/producer at MPR's Bemidji bureau, where he covers news across north central Minnesota. A Bemidji State University graduate, Robertson worked as a newspaper reporter/editor and as a commercial radio news director before coming to MPR in 1998. He's the recipient of a number of other awards, including the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism and several Minnesota Page One Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Robertson is a fellow of both the Casey Journalism Center and The Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland.

MPR also took first place in the Features category for Curtis Gilbert's "Chicken Caper" and in the Documentary/Investigative and the Best in Show categories for Lorna Benson's "Toxic Traces Revisited." Honorable mentions included MPR staff's coverage of the bridge collapse in the Hard News category; "Songs from Scratch" by Nikki Tundel, Sanden Totten, Larissa Anderson and Chris Roberts in the Series/Special category; and "How Long Are Children Waiting?" by Elizabeth Stawicki and Dan Gunderson in the Documentary/Investigative category.

Awards were presented Friday, March 28 in Bloomington, Minn.

Minnesota Public Radio® operates a 37-station radio network serving virtually all of Minnesota and parts of surrounding states and produces programming for radio, Internet and face-to-face audiences. Programs produced by Minnesota Public Radio, operating as American Public Media,™ reach more than 15 million listeners nationwide each week. Of those, more than 800,000 listen regionally, in Minnesota and surrounding states. A complete list of stations, programs and additional services can be obtained at www.mpr.org and www.americanpublicmedia.org.

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Source: Data are copyright Arbitron, Inc., Nationwide and PSA data. Arbitron data are estimates only. Fall 2006/Spring 2007 average