The Region Has Spoken: BEK TV Takes Home Three Honors This Year

For most companies, building a reputation the community trusts takes years. BEK Communications Cooperative has had nearly 75 years to do it, and this year, that trust showed up in three Bismarck Tribune Best of the Best honors at once.

BEK TV was named Best Local TV Station for the sixth year in a row and, for the first time ever, was also voted Best Video Production company. Lori Hinz was selected a favorite for Best TV Personality, adding her name to a list of BEK TV faces the region has recognized in this category before. Lori herself took the top honor in 2024, and last year the title went to BEK TV hosts of Midwest Murder Dawn Palumbo and Jonah Lantto.

BEK got its start when friends and neighbors across Burleigh, Emmons, and Kidder Counties came together to bring telephone service to rural communities that larger providers weren't willing to reach. 75 years later, that same member-first spirit is why BEK TV exists: a station built to give North Dakota the local sports, news, and perspectives that national networks so often overlook.

That mission shows in the numbers. BEK TV is the largest broadcaster of high school and collegiate athletics in the region, and it has earned 21 Eric Sevareid awards from the Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association along the way. On the news side, BEK broadcasts nearly 30 daily news and opinion programs, each hosted by real voices sharing their own perspective, with no corporate script dictating what they say.

Best of the Best isn't decided by a panel or a boardroom; it's decided by the people. Every vote comes from readers across the region choosing the local businesses, services, and personalities they trust most, and that's exactly the kind of recognition that means the most to us.

These wins reflect the work of the whole BEK TV team — the people you see on air and the people you never see at all: reporters, camera operators, editors, producers, and everyone in News and Sports who shows up to tell this region's stories. We're proud to keep doing it, uncensored and unscripted, the way our members and communities have always asked us to.

Thank you for watching, for voting, and for making BEK TV part of your day.