PRESS RELEASE — Thursday, April 9, 2009
For Information Call Karen Svea Johnson at 208-373-7369
or Anne Peterson at 208-373-7368

IdahoPTV’s Barbara Morgan Documentary Garners Regional Edward R. Murrow Award

The hour-long Idaho Public Television documentary BARBARA MORGAN: NO LIMITS is an Edward R. Murrow Award winner in Region 1 in the News Documentary category.

Regional winners, who were announced online Thursday morning, will be entered into the national competition that culminates in June. The Radio-Television News Directors Association has been honoring outstanding achievements in electronic journalism with the Edward R. Murrow Awards since 1971. Region 1 includes Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

IdahoPTV producer Marcia Franklin and videographer Jay Krajic chronicled the 23-year odyssey of the Idaho schoolteacher determined to fly in space. Morgan was accepted originally into the Teacher-in-Space program in 1984, which then was canceled in 1986 after the shuttle explosion that killed Teacher-in-Space Christa McAuliffe. Using rare footage and photos, as well as interviews with Morgan, her friends, colleagues, students and family, NO LIMITS shows how she later became a full-fledged astronaut. On August 8, 2007, Morgan and her six crewmates blasted off in the Shuttle Endeavour, the beginning of a 13-day mission to the International Space Station.

The documentary premiered on IdahoPTV in March 2008 and was accepted by PBS for national distribution, airing in January nationwide.

Idaho Public Television, a statewide public television system, garnered two previous regional Edward R. Murrow Awards. The first in 2000 in the Writing Category for AERIAL TAPESTRY and the second in 2006 in News Documentary for OUTDOOR IDAHO “Silver Valley Rising.”