The award was in Division Two, which consists of stations with five or fewer full-time employees in the news department. KCSN has only one full-time employee, news director Keith Goldstein. The rest of the newsroom is made up of Northridge students majoring in broadcast journalism.

The award was for an Oct. 19, 2004 broadcast of "The Evening Update," a 30-minute news program that airs weekdays at 6 p.m.

That night's show was anchored by senior Kaitlyn Van Diepen and produced by Goldstein, who also served as a writer. Other journalism students who contributed to the award-winning newscast were field reporter Betsy Lambert, health reporter Moe Joseph and sports reporter Devin Saint-Albin. Story topics included the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's newly designed buses, truck traffic, air pollution, California's public pension system, aggressive driving and identity theft.

The competition featured entries from radio stations throughout California and Nevada.