A Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies student received the Edward R. Murrow Award for his team’s broadcasting documentary “The Grand Ole Guitar” at the award’s Oct. 9 gala.

Kahwit Tela (GRD ’25) was a member of a project team that received the award, which recognizes individuals or teams for their exemplary technical endeavors in telling broadcast journalism stories about a community, during his senior year at Lipscomb University.

Tela, along with his classmates Shawna Mann, Emma Shanahan and Spencer Barnabee, produced an 18-minute documentary that focused on the history of a guitar-shaped scoreboard at the minor-league Nashville Sounds’ baseball stadium. The team began the research and documentary process in early 2022. 

The iconic guitar-shaped scoreboard was located at the Triple-A minor league team’s former longtime home at Greer Stadium, before its demolition began in 2019. 

Tela said that prior to diving into the project, neither he nor his crew members were from the Nashville area, nor familiar with baseball culture. 

“I was interested in learning more about the Nashville Sounds and baseball. Although it is a music city, why was the billboard there?” Tela told The Hoya. 

Demetria Kalodimos, the students’ guide and mentor throughout the documentary process, originally introduced the scoreboard idea. Kalodimos has worked in Nashville for 39 years as a broadcast journalist and evening news anchor. 

Kalodimos originally opened the project to the whole class, but Tela, Mann, Shanahan and Barnabee agreed to take on the project and worked out a schedule outside of class to do research and filming. 

Shanahan said that the group of four equally divided the project’s tasks.

“We basically equally shared the roles of editing, filming, setting up interviews and the post and pre-production process,” Shanahan told The Hoya. 

Tela said that one of the most difficult parts of the project was finding time for interviews while each student had different schedules. 

“It was a challenge to try to find a way for one of us to come to do the interview and what time to edit the footage while also doing classwork,” Tela said. 

The group submitted their work to the Edward R. Murrow Award jurors in May and presented “The Grand Ole Guitar” at the 33rd Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, which is a conference held every year with general presentations and concurrent sessions, at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

Mann said it was an honor for the team to present the documentary. 

“Showing it to different baseball historians and scholars was an honor, to be able to share in the national way of baseball culture and historians. It made me feel like the documentary goes beyond Nashville, transcends what baseball and culture is, and bridges people together,” Mann told The Hoya. 

Kahwit said the exposure that the documentary received after winning the Edward R. Murrow award went beyond his expectations.

“The notoriety afterwards, being able to present it at the Baseball Hall of Fame and traveling to NYC for the Murrow awards, different articles and news channels asking about the process was not something I expected,” Mann said. 

Tela said that he held back tears when he found out about the Murrow Award.

“It still brings me joy just seeing how much time and effort my classmates, professors and I put into this documentary, and it meant the world.”