‘Finding Frankie’s Diagnosis’ won a national broadcasting award for WSU’s Cable 8 Productions.

The award, which was given for best special broadcast, came from College Broadcasting Incorporated.

“We continually always win a couple of awards but it is not always where we end up winning a national award,” said Herman Meier, president general manager of Cable 8.

The award was given for a one-hour special called ‘Finding Frankie’s Diagnosis’.

“Frankie wasn’t walking and talking when he was supposed to,” said Denise Gibbs, former Vice President of Public Relations and Alumni Affairs.

Frankie lives with his family in Pullman and is sponsored by a group called Boost Collaborative. The group works with children as well as other community members who have disabilities.

“The doctors weren’t specifically sure what Frankie had, just that he was having developmental and progression problems,” Gibbs said.

Cable 8’s goal was to raise as much money as they could to put toward genetic testing for Frankie.

“Each year we put on a series of events which culminates into a telethon to raise money,” said Taylor Winslow, vice president of public relations and alumni affairs.

Gibbs said they raised around $2,500 for Frankie and his family.

This was the fifth year Cable 8 sponsored someone in the community to help assist them with a personal struggle.

“I think awareness throughout the community was a huge goal of ours, what Frankie has is not an average thing to see,” said Gibbs, “It was important for us to help in their family’s situation.”

Cable 8 is not a complete stranger to this award, receiving it in 2010 with over 400 entries submitted in the contest.

“It is an incredible feeling to win this award,” Winslow said. “It solidifies the hard work that gets put into Cable 8.”

College Broadcasting Incorporated opens up nominations in March, and each college station, radio as well as television, is eligible to do a write up of each of their broadcasts for submission.

“Central Washington University took home an award for radio broadcasting,” Winslow said. “It was really neat to see other programs in our area doing so well.”

WSU had three entries that made it to the top four of the selections.

“We were one of the only schools who had multiple entries that were finalists so that was pretty amazing,” Winslow said.

CORRECTION: This story was updated to include Cable 8 Production’s correct title.