KUAT claims 6 Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards

When the Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards were presented last month, only one Tucson television station could claim victory.

In fact, KUAT-TV, which operates from the University of Arizona campus, was the only Tucson station to be nominated.

The station, which is part of the KUAT Communications Group, concentrates on educational productions.

The annual awards are given to honor excellence in television programming in the Rocky Mountain region.

"We put a lot of value in the Emmy as a standard of our work. We are always excited to be nominated," said Francis Sherlock, executive producer of "The Desert Speaks."

In the past, KUAT has received individual achievement awards, Sherlock said. But this year the programs were recognized as a whole.

TV Creative Services Manager Mike Serres said, "It really shows the caliber of the staff at KUAT, that they would be chosen by their peers, and to win so many awards in the market.

"While this isn't the first series of Emmys we've won, it renews our commitment and enthusiasm for producing high quality programming," he said.

The Emmy-award winning series "The Desert Speaks," a nature and science series, won two awards:

• Steve Bayless won for sound
• Nathan Shelton won in the sound category for his work on "Baja's Pacific Islands Part I"
• Thomas Kleespie, Daniel Duncan and Francis Sherlock won for the production of the documentary "Grand Canyon: Flood of Knowledge," which showed the release of flood waters from the Glen Canyon Dam in 1996.
• Martin Rubio received two awards, one for lighting and another for photography for "San Xavier," a segment of "Arizona Illustrated."
• Daniel Duncan and Pamela White won for the production of "When the Dust Settles," the story of a female rodeo photographer.