Broadcast editorials: a dying breed in a ripe market. (broadcast journalism awards) (Profiles in Excellence: The Stories Behind the 1991 Sigma Delta Chi Awards)

As broadcast outlets gain viewers and listeners at the expense of newspapers, broadcast editorials should become more influential. If that proves true, KGTV in San Diego and KCBS-AM in San Francisco should be among the most influential news outlets in the country. KCBS has won the Sigma Delta Chi award for radio editorials for the last three years and five times in the last eight years; KGTV has won the TV editorial award for the last four years and five times in the last six years.

But there's a catch: the competition gets lighter each year because fewer and fewer broadcasters bother with editorials. The National Broadcast Editorial Association had 188 members at its height in 1981; when it folded itself into the more general National Conference of Editorial Writers at …