OTEC awarded for its communication efforts

Oregon Trail Electric Co-Op was recently honored with a first-place award for its YouTube video productions and a second-place award for its radio program “Your Voice,” which is aired locally on KLBM/KBKR.

The awards, from the Northwest Public Power Association, were both in the Wild Card category.

“It truly is an honor to be recognized,” said OTEC Communications Specialist Michael Howe. “There were a number of worthy entries and for OTEC to receive these honors is quite humbling.”

“OTEC-TV, as we affectionately call it, has been a great deal of fun to develop and we look forward to producing more videos in the near future,” said Howe.

The videos can be seen on OTEC’s website, www.otecc.com, or on OTEC’s YouTube site at www.youtube.com/otecc.

The radio program airs the third Thursday of each month on KLBM 1450 / KBKR 1490 in La Grande and Baker City.

Howe and Cliff Turner, news director for KBKR/KLBM, host the show each month and feature a different OTEC related guest and topic each month.

“We are very grateful that Cliff and SuperTalk Radio have chosen to include OTEC in their Your Voice programming,” said Howe.

He said that Turner does an exceptional job of making certain the listeners get information they want to hear. He added that the guests on the program have been entertaining and informative.

Each edition of OTEC-Radio has also been archived on the OTEC website. They can be heard by clicking the OTEC-Radio icon.

“These are just two of the tools OTEC uses to communicate to its members. The board, management and employees of OTEC have encouraged and supported a spirit of open communication. These honors are a direct result of this spirit,” Howe said.

This marks the 16th year NWPPA has issued awards for “Excellence in Communication.”

The organization is an international association representing and serving customer-owned, locally controlled utilities in the Western U.S. and Canada.

The association also serves more than 250 associate members across the U.S. and Canada who are allied with the electric utility industry.

Visit the NWPPA website at www.nwppa.org for more information.