BATON ROUGE — WBRZ won four awards from the Society of Professional Journalists' Louisiana Professional Chapter for our coverage in 2024. 

The WBRZ staff was awarded the grand prize in Television Journalism for our coverage of Hurricane Francine, as well as first-place for “Multi-Media Report.”

Longtime WBRZ anchor Sylvia Weatherspoon won first place in Professional Features in Radio or Television Journalism for her story, "Unlikely friendship sparks when boy mistakes multimillionaire for homeless man." This powerful story of humanity and kindness gained national attention. This piece was shot by Alden Simon, Tristyn Turner, Wes Ennis and edited by Michael Shingleton. This story was also nominated for a Regional Emmy award and won an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award. 

Investigative reporter Bess Casserleigh and highly-renowned photographer Joe McCoy won second place in the A-Mark Foundation Award for Investigative Reporting for their series diving into the problems at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center. Through rigorous reporting, the two unveiled a systemic drug problem and ignited change within the facility. These reports have also won an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award.