KCLU journalist wins 3rd national award
Society of Professional Journalists honors fire story
Lance Orozco picked up the 2016 National Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for Best Radio Breaking News Reporting among small-market stations at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
(WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 26, 2017) KCLU Radio News Director Lance Orozco received a national award for excellence in journalism on Friday.
Orozco picked up the 2016 National Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for Best Radio Breaking News Reporting among small-market stations at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The award recognizes resourceful and complete coverage of a major breaking news event, emphasizing both deadline reporting and continuing coverage as the story develops over succeeding days.
The longtime local broadcast journalist provided on-scene coverage of the 7,400-acre Sherpa Fire, which threatened hundreds of ranches and homes and twice forced the shutdown of Highway 101. It burned for nearly a month between Gaviota and Goleta. Orozco’s story, which aired in June 2016, featured comments from multiple firefighters and residents as well as the sounds of helicopters, tractors and chainsaws used to fight the brushfire.
This is Orozco’s third national journalism award. The National Society of Professional Journalists honored him for the first time in 2013 with the Best Feature Reporting award for his story chronicling his battle with kidney cancer. In 2010, he received a National Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Audio Sports Reporting from the Radio Television Digital News Association for his profile of the oldest living team member of the Dodgers.
For this year’s Sigma Delta Chi Awards, judges selected winners in 85 categories from more than 1,300 submissions from radio and television stations, newspapers, online news outlets and magazines. Other winners included the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and ABC. CBS Radio News won the large-market award for Best Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of the mass shooting at Florida’s Pulse nightclub.
Orozco has won more than 200 regional journalism awards for KCLU and has been named the Associated Press Small-Market Reporter of the Year in the western United States 10 times. A broadcast journalist for more than three decades, he worked at KEYT-TV, KCBS-TV and other television and radio stations throughout California before joining KCLU in 2001.
To listen to Orozco’s story on the Sherpa Fire, go to http://kclu.org/post/brush-fire-santa-barbara-county-mushrooms-4000-acres-now-5-contained#stream/0.
KCLU, a community service of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, provides National Public Radio and local news programming to more than 100,000 weekly listeners in Ventura County at 88.3 FM, southern Santa Barbara County at 1340 AM and 102.3 FM, Santa Maria at 89.7 FM, San Luis Obispo at 92.1 and online at KCLU.org.
More
- 2025 Luther Lecture Recording
April 9, 2025Thank you for joining us for the 2025 Luther Lecture, delivered by Dr. Marcela K. Perett in conversation with Dr. Kirsi Stjerna.
- 2025 Mohrenweiser Lecture Recording
March 21, 2025View the 2025 Mohrenweiser Lecture Panel at the link enclosed!
- Mark Yaconelli Asks Us to Listen to God in the Darkness at 2024 Founders' Day Lecture
September 20, 2024The 2024 PLTS Founders' Day Lecture featured Mark Yaconelli - a writer, retreat leader, community builder, spiritual director, storycatcher, husband, and father. You can hear his incredible words of wisdom at the link inside!
- Important Update about PLTS and the GTU from Rector Dr. Raymond Pickett
August 26, 2024PLTS has for the past several years been adapting to the changing landscape of theological education and the church by developing a robust Distributed Learning version of our degree programs and creating programs for a broader audience. The Graduate Theological Union has also been changing. As the seminary continues to implement its strategic vision for the future, we have made the difficult decision to leave the Graduate Theological Union in two years.
- News About PLTS Residential Programs
March 13, 2024 - Rev. Dr. Anthony Bateza at the 2023 Luther Lecture
March 24, 2023 - More than 200 attend hybrid film screening for "The Ants and the Grasshopper"
February 16, 2023 - Dr. Arvin Gouw 2023 Mohrenweiser Lecture
February 16, 2023PLTS was immensely fortunate to welcome Dr. Arvin Gouw for our 2023 Mohrenweiser Lecture. Dr. Gouw clearly described the mechanism and uses of CRISPR for a lay audience, and then dug deeper into the ethical and religious implications of this powerful gene-editing tool. Afterward, Dr. Ted Peters offered a response that pushed religious leaders, particularly pastors, to think through how the existence and increasing prominence of this technology might affect their congregants.
We encourage you to watch and share the below video of this lecture and continue the conversation.
- Dr. Larry Rasmussen - Founders' Day 2022 Lecture
November 10, 2022PLTS welcomed Dr. Larry Rasmussen to give the 2022 Founders' Day Lecture to our gathered community in-person and online. Watch Dr. Rasmussen's lecture below.
- Seminary starts programs for change agents
March 2, 2022California Lutheran University’s Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS) is offering new programs to prepare religious leaders and laypeople to work for social and environmental change with online options.