Your favorite Rocky Mountain PBS journalists’ favorite journalism of 2024
share
DENVER — In celebration of a transformative year at Rocky Mountain PBS, our staff will observe a publishing pause between Tuesday, Dec. 31 and Friday, Jan. 3. We hope that those of you who have shared your stories with us, supported our newsroom and turned to us for community and coverage likewise find time to rest and recharge ahead of the new year.
Thank you for your thoughtful engagement with our work–our readers and viewers make all the difference. You can still catch our original programming on broadcast and streaming.
Ahead of the break, our staff broke down their own top stories of the year as well as how their newsroom colleagues’ work inspired and moved them. Please check out their 2024 favorites below.
Carly Rose
Multimedia journalist Carly Rose, who has reported a lot on justice and education, spent time at the Trinidad Correctional Facility following students coping with incarceration and healing through a one-of-a-kind yoga program.
Her staff pick, Cormac McCrimmon’s great pumpkin story, detailed just what a serious business growing giant gourds is for a Fort Collins gardener.
Her staff pick, Cormac McCrimmon’s great pumpkin story, detailed just what a serious business growing giant gourds is for a Fort Collins gardener.
Durango-based multimedia journalist Ziyi Xu’s story on Silverton’s only grocery store resonated with Coloradans and out-of-staters alike, garnering more than 1.3 million views on YouTube. For now, Silverton Grocery Store owners Darlene and Mark Watson are planning on maintaining ownership of the shop.
From her colleagues' stories, Xu loved Chase McCleary’s piece on how chess transformed Mark Salazar’s life in prison and led to his work teaching the skill to Pueblo students.
“I find chess boring, but his story almost made me want to learn chess,” Xu said.
Another favorite, Andrea Kramar and Cormac McCrimmon’s “Alone in the wilderness: The lives and work of Colorado sheepherders,” explored how vulnerable agricultural work on the range can be.
“I shared it with friends who romanticized the work of sheepherders (thanks to 'Brokeback Mountain') and now they see this job in a completely different way,” she said.
Northern Colorado multimedia journalist Cormac McCrimmon also enjoyed reporting on giant pumpkins in 2024.
“Nothing could've prepared me for the sight of a 2,000-pound pumpkin,” McCrimmon said.
“When I first stepped foot in Bledsoe's greenhouse, it felt like walking into a Roald Dahl story. I'm fascinated by the time and energy Bledsoe puts into growing his record-breaking pumpkins. It's a ridiculous hobby — even Bledsoe knows that — but what person doesn't have their own strange obsession?”
From the newsroom, McCrimmon enjoyed Alec Berg’s portrait of how Craig, Colorado is preparing for the closure of its largest employer, the Craig Station coal-processing plant, by shifting its industry to river recreation.
Joshua Vorse
Fruita-based multimedia journalist Joshua Vorse tackled the intersection of AI and agriculture in his favorite piece of the year, “Q&A: The place for AI in agriculture.”
“It was fascinating seeing this hyper specific use of machine learning,” Vorse said. “The world of AI and big data models is often nebulous, in my experience, with little concrete action or benefit to be found in its use. Here, it’s tangible, the data helps inform how much water should be used on individual parts of a corn field.”
Vorse’s staff pick likewise focused on the outdoors in McCrimmon’s story following a new batch of rookie wildland firefighter trainees in Salida.
“The story has great info, and the video takes me to the specific place, helping tell the story of how important the physical terrain is to the training,” Vorse said.
Andrea Kramar
Senior producer Andrea Kramar hated having just two favorite stories and chose three. The first, from Chase McCleary, documented “the good, the bad, and the holly jolly” at the Colorado Springs chapter of the IBRBS (formerly known as the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas). The story, according to Kramar, was the “most hilarious” pick of the year.
Kramar herself dove into another beloved Colorado subculture, local breweries, with her chronicle of the history of beer in the state.
On a more serious note, Kramar investigated how low teacher pay has led to a shortage of qualified preschool teachers in Colorado and how some schools have gotten creative to meet the need for early education.
On a more serious note, Kramar investigated how low teacher pay has led to a shortage of qualified preschool teachers in Colorado and how some schools have gotten creative to meet the need for early education.
Peter Vo
For the past year, multimedia journalists Peter Vo and Carly Rose have followed a cohort of students at Breakthrough, a prison education program that focuses on entrepreneurship and business skills. The first piece on the program was Vo’s top pick for 2024.
Vo’s photo essay on a day at Uhrich Locomotive Works, one of the last businesses in the United States dedicated to fabricating train parts, captured the history of the place and also the camaraderie of the men who work there, who frequently cook and share lunch together.
As a reader, Vo appreciated Alec Berg’s deep dive into the Auraria Campus encampments in protest of the Israel-Hamas war.
“It was a very well-written piece, extremely informative, and was done in a way that many other Colorado news outlets didn’t do,” he said.
Chase McCleary
Colorado Springs and southern Colorado reporter Chase McCleary followed the Stratton, Colorado 6-man football team to capture how the unique sport brings together rural communities across the state.
McCleary’s favorite story from a colleague, “A car crash you can’t look away from,” from Cormac McCrimmon, gives it all away in the title and covers the Greeley Stampede demolition derby.
Amanda Horvath
Managing producer Amanda Horvath spent months reporting on the effects of wolf re-introduction on cattle ranchers along the front range for the Colorado Experience documentary, “Return of the Wolf.”
“This article explained the context behind emotion ranchers were feeling as well as why pro-wolf advocates are excited about the wolf’s return,” she said. “But ultimately, this article gave people a window into a problem that continues to plague the Colorado identity—rural vs. urban living.”
Horvath’s staff pick went in a different direction: Andrea Kramar’s look at an art world mystery and how a 17th century painting by a Spanish master ended up in a Denver office park.
“I just fell in love with the way that she told the video story — where I first had to learn about art conservation and how rare of a skill it is, to then the reveal of this potentially multi-million-dollar painting in Denver was a masterclass in storytelling,” she said.
News editor Kyle Cooke does double duty as a reporter as well as editor and wrote about the truth behind The Epoch Times billboards around Denver purporting to be the “#1 Trusted News.”
"I noticed the Epoch Times' billboards when I was driving back from a ski day, and I figured a lot of our readers would have the same question I did: 'what is this?'" Cooke said.
"I noticed the Epoch Times' billboards when I was driving back from a ski day, and I figured a lot of our readers would have the same question I did: 'what is this?'" Cooke said.
Peter Vo’s story on generations of the Inouye family conducting research at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic ranked as one of Cooke's favorite stories of the year.
"The combination of history, science and top-notch photography is Rocky Mountain PBS at its best," he said.
"The combination of history, science and top-notch photography is Rocky Mountain PBS at its best," he said.
To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.