Sunday, November 2, 2008

2008 College Radio Awards at CMJ

CMJ College Radio Awards
October 23, 2008

College Day at the CMJ Music Marathon on Thursday, October 23, 2008 was capped off by the 4th Annual College Radio Awards Ceremony. Throughout the conference attendees were able to vote for their favorites among the listed nominees. I always take awards like this with a grain of salt, as it's impossible for all the attendees to actually know every single one of the nominees. In some cases we met some of them if they were on panels this year. Additionally, some radio stations sent big contingents to CMJ, thus allowing for more votes for their stations. Similarly, other nominated stations had no presence at CMJ and probably suffered in the voting because of it.

Despite all of this, the awards ceremony itself was super fun, with hilarious acceptance speeches and random moments. One winner thanked a fellow DJ for getting drunk the night before and peeing all over their hotel room. Another handed out fake awards of beer, a beard, an a unicorn riding a Narwal. Additionally, the disturbing Chocolate Axe Man made another appearance, helping to hand out the award for "Best Mentor."

The biggest winners were KEXP (Seattle) and CJLO (Montreal), with 5 awards each. It's notable that KEXP had a big presence at CMJ this year, with live broadcasts happening each day of the festival, a table in the exhibition hall, and their Program Manager as a panelist.


To see the list of college radio-related nominees, read my post from early October. The CMJ Staff Blog also has a nice article profiling all of the "Station of the Year" nominees. To see all of the winners, including "industry" awards for best label promoter, etc, read this article on CMJ. On with the winners:

2008 CMJ Radio Station Awards

Station Of The Year
KEXP-FM (University of Washington, Seattle, WA)

Music Director Of The Year
Omar Husain (CJLO)

Specialty Music Director Of The Year
Jesse Novak (WWVU)

Best Student-Run Non-FM Station
CJLO (Montreal)

Biggest Innovator
Tenni Gharakanian (CFRE)

Most Groundbreaking
KEXP (Seattle)

Music Director With The Best Band That Doesn't Suck
Omar Husain (CJLO)

In It For The Music
Cynthia Luna (WBWC)

Best Podcast
KEXP (Seattle)

Best Use Of The Web
WOXY.com (Cincinnati)

Most Likely To Reinvent Radio
KEXP (Seattle)

Biggest Asset To The Community
KEXP (Seattle)

Best Use Of Limited Resources
KSSU (Sacramento)

Most Fun
Omar Husain (CJLO)

Best Team Effort
CJLO (Montreal)

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