Live 5 News honored with 5 ‘Best of Charleston’ awards

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The votes are in and readers of the Charleston City Paper awarded five top honors to the Live 5 News team, including two of the station’s longtime anchors.

The awards also recognized the station’s digital team.

The paper’s annual Best of Charleston campaign recognized Chief Meteorologist Bill Walsh as Best Local TV Weather Forecaster. Live 5 Meteorologist Joey Sovine was also nominated in the category.

Walsh joined the Live 5 First Alert Weather team in June of 1993. Prior to that, he worked for six years at WCIV, and at stations in New England. He is a retired lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Air Force Reserve and is a contributor for The Weather Channel and CBS Mornings.

Sports Director Kevin Bilodeau received the award for Best Local TV Sports Anchor category. Live 5′s Summer Huechtker was also nominated in that category.

Bilodeau joined Live 5 News in September of 2004. He became sports director in August of 2016.

WCSC-TV received the award for Best Local TV Station. The station signed on 70 years ago this June, with legendary weatherman Charlie Hall speaking the first words on the air: “Channel 5 is now alive.”

The station began broadcasting from East Bay Street in downtown Charleston. In 1997, the same year that Hall died, the station moved to its present facility in West Ashley. The street on which the studios now sit was named Charlie Hall Boulevard in honor of the late broadcaster.

WCSC was the second station to begin broadcasting in South Carolina and is today the oldest continuously-broadcasting station in the state.

WCSC-TV was the first local station to broadcast live in the field during newscasts, the first to use satellite technology to broadcast live remotes from around the globe and the first to broadcast in high definition.

The station’s digital team was honored with two awards: Best Local Website for live5news.com and Best Local Twitter Feed for its @Live5News account.

WCSC was the only Lowcountry television station to be nominated in either category this year.

Each year, the readers of Charleston City Paper nominate people and businesses in a variety of categories spotlighting the best the area has to offer. The nominations are narrowed to a list of nominees and readers then have the chance to choose their pick from each list.

Other nominees this year included Ann McGill, Raphael James, Michal Higdon and Cameron Bopp, all for Best Local TV Anchor; and Anna Harris for her report on the termination of the Berkeley County School District superintendent for Best News Story of 2022.

Voting on this year’s “Best of Charleston” Awards closed on March 8. The winners were announced Wednesday night at a celebration.

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