S.B. Columnist
Starshine Roshell
The Santa Barbara Independent, independent.com
She’s outrageous, hilarious, insightful, prolific, and crazy good at turns of phrase, so there is little wonder why our very own Starshine Roshell is our readers’ pick once again as the best columnist in town. Every other week, her words explode off the page like some sort of hyper-intelligent social commentator a few glasses deep into a bottle of wine. “In any other scenario, someone who’s compelled to tell strangers about her personal problems — in blush-inducing detail — is considered a loser,” says Starshine, “so winning something for it is a refreshing turn of events. Thanks, you nutty readers!”
FINALIST: NICK WELSH
S.B. Radio Station
KjEE 92.9
On your radio dial, 92.9 is as Santa Barbara–centric as they come. Their sound is a definite Southern California–flavored type of modern rock; they have “The Palm” doing their news every morning; they have real, live-on-air deejays who you actually see in town, like Phat J, Bernie Baggs, the Cool Ruler, and Dave Hanacek; and their Summer Round-Up concert at the Bowl is an annual apex event for kids around these parts, not to mention the many other concerts KjEE helps put on during the rest of the year. Add it all up, and you get a radio station doing the things that most others stopped doing years ago. This, precisely, is why our readers love them so.
FINALIST: KTYD 99.9
S.B.-Based Website • S.B. Twitter Follow
Edhat.com, @Edhat
It has been more than a decade since the late Peter Sklar started edhat.com, a community-minded, citizen-journalist-powered, news-story-collecting service. By curating stories from various media outlets as well as familiar characters around town and posting them message-board-style online, Edhat has become a favorite destination for news-seeking Santa Barbarians. You can find just about everything on Edhat’s boards, from breaking news updates about power outages to recommendations for a trustworthy housecleaner to pictures of a neighbor’s particularly fat cat. The comments pages also serve as a deep, deep well of entertainment, information, and cyber angst. It only follows that their twitter handle, @Edhat, has now achieved similar top-of-the-heap status.
FINALISTS: THE SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT: INDEPENDENT.COM (S.B.-based WEBSITE)
KEYT (S.B. TWITTER FOLLOW)