The Heartland Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Science has nominated KTWU, a Kansas public television station, for Emmy awards in three categories.

KTWU will be competing alongside television professionals throughout Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Wyoming who were also nominated for regional Emmy awards. Nominations for KTWU were in the following categories: Arts and Entertainment, Special Event Coverage and Public Service Campaign.

“The Hound of the Baskervilles: Theater of The Mind,” for example, was in the Entertainment Program/Special category, and is essentially a radio show filmed in the KTWU studio based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles.” Eugene Williams, general manager of KTWU, said the “Theater of The Mind” is made about once a year, and has been submitted to the NATAS for the past several years.

“The reason it’s so unique is because it’s a radio play and you watch it on the air but it’s like an old radio style thing,” said Williams. “You remember shows like The Green Hornet, Batman and all those-those shows all started on radio. So what you’re doing is watching a radio play on television. You see people going back and forth to the microphones, you see people doing special effects. All those things, if you were sitting there listening to it on the radio, would be creating imagery for you. Now you’re seeing how it’s being created for you.”

KTWU was also nominated for the “2011 Washburn University Holiday Vespers” in the Special Event category. This event was filmed in the White Concert Hall on Dec. 18, and featured the classic seasonal performances of the Washburn University choir, orchestra, singers and women’s chorus.

Lastly, KTWU was nominated for “disability pride;” a public service campaign designed to raise aware of, and prevent, prejudice toward disabled individuals. This campaign has received a great deal of positive feedback from the community.

The staff of KTWU has had no shortage of support from the greater Topeka community, and frankly they’re aware of the quality of their work. But that has not diminished how each of these nominations has had a positive impact on them. 

 “I think it does two things,” said Williams. “One of the things is it makes us more competitive from an industry standpoint. The second thing is it really promotes us in an arena where people would think we normally could not achieve. When we compete in this region, we compete against the Denver market, against Oklahoma City, all these different places. So when our product and service is recognized at that level then it really does say something about the type of work that we do.”