Surprise garners awards for cable channel, Web site

Surprise has received national recognition for its cable television productions and Web site.

"Dream Jobs," a PSA featuring children dreaming of careers with the city, won a Silver Telly Award in the "Use of Humor" Video category.

The "Literary Feast" series earned a Bronze Telly Award in the "TV- Cultural" category. The Literary Feasts were West Valley Art Museum programs featuring authors discussing their novels before a live audience. Surprise 11 produced these presentations for television. 

The 29th annual Telly Awards recognize the best local, regional and national television commercials, film and video productions and Web commercials, videos and films.

The 2008 Surprise spring training Web site garnered an "Award of Distinction" from the Communicator Awards, a national program honoring creative excellence for communication professionals. The site featured a unique "field view" feature, where ticket buyers would see a view of the playing field as they rolled their mouse over seating sections on the stadium diagram. 
The spring training site award comes amidst a boom in visitors to www.surpriseaz.com, which has recorded double digit percentage increases in visits each month in 2008 compared to 2007.

The city Web site and Surprise 11 are operated by the Surprise Communications Department.