The Associated Press was the big winner today of the 2012 New York Press Club Awards for Journalism. The AP walked away with six awards including top prize, the Gold Keyboard Investigative Journalism Award for the series, “NYPD Spies on NYC.”

Finalists for the Gold Keyboard were Ian Urbina at The New York Times and Daniel Golden and Oliver Staley at Bloomberg News.

NY1 won the coveted Rev. Mychal Judge Heart of New York trophy for One on 1 with Budd Mishkin: A Look Back at 2011.

Finalist for the Nellie Bly Cub Reporter was WCBS 880 reporter/anchor Alex Silverman.

The winner for Best Headline and Front Page in the magazine category went to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, while Newsday took home for newspaper.

For Best Business Reporting, Bloomberg TV with anchors Carole Massar, Matt Miller, and Carole Zimmer was victorious. Bloomberg also won in the magazine division.

Best Business Reporting among newspapers goes to The Wall Street Journal.

In the Consumer Reporting category, chalk another for the mayor’s media empire, as Bloomberg News wins in the NewsWire division.

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Longtime NY1 reporter Budd Mishkin is about to embark on a journey that would make his history teachers proud.

Mishkin is taking the Freedom Rides route made famous 50 years ago through Deep South cities.

“The producers and executive producer knew of the events that were going on and knew of my interest in the Civil Rights Era and the Civil Rights Movement,” Mishkin tells FishbowlNY.

It doesn’t hurt that Mishkin is also a history buff.

“There are going to be kids involved from New York going down, reenacting the Freedom Ride, or at least to a certain extent, going to some of the important sites from the Civil Rights Era.”

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What started as a casual conversation about the humble beginnings of Chicago Public Radio‘s “This American Life” turned into an impromptu press conference last night as host Ira Glass announced the end of the popular radio program’s Emmy nominated television spinoff on Showtime.

“I don’t know if I can say this yet, but we’ve asked to be taken off of television,” Glass revealed.

Glass’ unexpected announcement came in the midst of a Behind the Scenes event hosted at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y. The night’s panel, moderated by NY1‘s Budd Mishkin, included the show’s senior producers Julie Snyder, Nancy Updike, Jane Feltes and Sean Cole, as well as film rights producer Alissa Shipp and production manager Seth Lind.

Then, of course, there was Glass — the host and executive producer of the public radio golden child and Showtime program of the same name — who has become ubiquitous on television, billboards and panels alike. His Buddy Holly glasses and graying spiked hair are familiar by now, and his notoriety explains why his introductory applause was by far the most sustained.

Steering the conversation casually, Mishkin lauded the program, giving the night a celebratory feel as the show’s creators discussed its methods and told insider stories to the delight of the crowd. The event began with anecdotes from seemingly slapdash beginnings, as Updike recalled struggling to fill an hour broadcast, even letting Glass wing it live to fill time in the days before the show’s syndication.

The producers reflected on the various media properties that have resulted since the humble inception of “This American Life,” including the forthcoming Steven Soderbergh film The Informant! starring Matt Damon, which is based on an episode.

According to Glass, the show’s relationship with movies was all about supply and demand: “We had no money, but a large supply of ideas, while Hollywood had a large amount of money and no ideas.”

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