I'm not sure how fixated your station is on radio competitions, but here's one whose deadline is rapidly approaching on May 21st. College Broadcasters Inc. (CBI) is seeking entrants for its annual National Student Production Awards. Student-produced worked for a campus media outlet is eligible to win in categories including:
Best DJ
Best Station Promo
Best PSA
Best Newscast
Best News Reporting
Best Feature Show or Broadcast
Best Documentary
Best Technical Production
Best Sports Reporting
Best Sports Play-by-Play
Best Entertainment Program (for example, a weekly serial)
Best Station Promotion (including off-air events)
Best Website
You can submit your entries online in MP3 format and there's a $50 entry fee if your station is not a member of CBI (many college radio stations are members, so be sure to double check with your station).
Some of the action at the 2010 IBS Conference Photo courtesy IBS
The Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) wrapped up their 70th annual conference in New York City two weekends ago. Although I couldn't be there to catch all of the educational sessions, radio station field trips, and schmoozing; I'm happy to be able to present some blog coverage by Simmons College student and radio DJ Amber Wilmot. Thanks so much to Amber for sending along her post about the IBS College Radio Awards winners.
IBS College Radio Awards and Winners – By Amber Wilmot
The Zurich Suite at the Hotel Pennsylvania was packed with delegates and presenters to hear the list of winners. Over 20 awards were presented to different colleges and radio talents. Winners received either a certificate or small radio trophy.
The major winner at this years conference was DePaul University from Chicago, Illinois. DePaul Radio took home nine awards ranging from Best Newscast to Most Creative Show. Congratulations to all of the IBS Radio Winners!
2010 IBS Award Winners
NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS:
Best Newscast- Jason Shough, Erin Olson and Lars Weborg Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Best News Feature Story- Anthony Costulos WPPJ-AM, Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA
Best Spot News- “Daley Plaza Reaction” Charles Haines, John Kristoff and Lars Weborg Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Best Community News Coverage- "Chicago's Losing Bid," by Charles Haines and Lars Weborg Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Best Public Affairs Program- WCRX News Team WCRX-FM, Columbia College Chicago
Best Public Affairs Series- Drew Pickering and Tyler Montgomery WMTS-FM, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN
Best Public Service Announcement- Katie Fox Eagle Radio, Central Methodist University, Fayette, MO
SPORTS:
Best Sports Play-by-Play WPPJ-AM, Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA
Best Sports Talk Program- The Sports Take WVYC-FM, York College of Pennsylvania, York, PA
Best Sports Update- Lars Weborg Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
PRODUCTION:
Best Promo Series All Independent Radio, New England Institute of Art, Brookline, MA
Best Station Promo- Nick Freedman Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Best Show Promo- Andrea Tessereau Eagle Radio, Central Methodist University, Fayette, MO
ON-AIR:
Best On-Air Personality- Matt Palumbo WCRX-FM, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
Best Specialty Music Show- "Sounds from the Underground," Lee MD Dickman WCRX-FM, Columbia College Chicago
Best Talk Program- Gary Young and Chris DiPizzo WSPC Radio, St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, NJ
Most Innovative Programming- Ben Gappa and Shan Kahn Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Most Creative Show- "The Midnight Rider," Nick Freedman Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Best Specialty Show- "The EY Christmas Special," Tyler Montgomery WMTS-FM, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfressboro, TN
MULTI-MEDIA:
Best Website WVYC, York College of Pennsylvania, York PA
OVERALL:
Abraham & Borst Award for Best Radio Station in the Nation Radio DePaul, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
mtvU just announced their 2009 winner for the annual College Radio Woodie Award. After many rounds of voting, KUPS from University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, Washington) was selected by popular vote. According to the article on the MTV website, over 3.1 million votes were cast.
New York DJ Matt Pinfield of WRXP (hey...I just saw him a few weeks ago!) actually showed up at KUPS on Friday to present the staff with their award and there's a great picture of that on the Weekly Volcano's Spew Blog.
The official mtvU Woodies Awards Ceremony takes place tomorrow in New York City and will be broadcast on various MTV outlets on December 4th. Although I've been focusing on their college radio award, the Woodies also include awards for best artists, videos, etc.
Congratulations to KUPS. It's awesome to see a station win this award that hasn't been on the top of some of the other recent college radio award lists and I appreciate that voters helped to mix things up a bit.
Take a look at my previous posts (I was a little OCD in terms of tracking the Woodies this year) about the 2009 College Radio Woodies to find out about the nomination process that began with more than 300 stations and was narrowed down to 100, then 50, then 25, and finally culled to five finalists.
Not necessarily the most educational part of College Day at the CMJ Music Marathon this year, but certainly the most fun was the College Radio Awards Ceremony on Thursday, October 22, 2009.
A few months back CMJ subscribers were invited to suggest nominees for the awards and in September those finalists were announced. During the CMJ Music Marathon attendees were able to vote for their favorites in a variety of categories related to college radio and college radio promotion.
Here's a selection of this year's nominees and you can check here for last year's winners.
Lisa Hresko and Moose Double Check the Vote Count
The MC for this event was CMJ's Editor-in-Chief Rev. Moose. He set an irreverent tone for the festivities by throwing free Bjorn Bjorg underwear out into the crowd throughout the ceremony. Instead of having set presenters, he chose folks based on the names on business cards that he pulled from his pocket. Those accepting awards also joked around by running up the aisle shooting confetti guns, spouting off non-sequiter acceptance speeches, and by pretending to answer fake cell phone calls from family members.
This year, Sacramento State station KSSU dominated with 5 awards (ousting last year's big winner KEXP). Canadian stations also did extremely well, with CJLO earning three awards and CHUO and CFUV each scoring one a piece.
I was impressed to see a variety of stations nominated for awards this year, but a bit disappointed to again see one station win a sweep of major awards. It's tough, because many of the people voting probably aren't familiar with all of the stations in the running...so they may just vote based on who they've met at CMJ and who they've seen on panels.
No Wonder CJLO Won "Best Group Effort"
On to the station-related winners (to see all winners, see the story on CMJ):
We're now down to 5 finalists in mtvU's contest for the "College Radio Woodie" award. I've been following the ins and outs of the nomination process since it began back in August and am actually kind of intrigued to see which stations got the most votes. It's interesting to note than none of these stations were even in the Top 20 list last year for the Woodies. In that respect, it's kind of cool to see that things are getting mixed up a bit and that the winner this year will be a station that wasn't previously recognized.
One can vote among these 5 finalists through November 9th. The winner will be announced online on November 18th and will be celebrated in a ceremony to air on MTV on December 4th. Here are the finalists:
Coyote Radio (California State University, San Bernardino, CA) KUPS (University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA) KCOU (University of Missouri) WCRD (Ball State University, Muncie, IN) WPTS (University of Pittsburgh, PA)
I'm starting to wonder if I'm the only person who's been scrutinizing the nomination process for mtvU's College Radio Woodie Awards this year.
Today I checked back on their website just to verify the deadlines for the various rounds within "Round 2" of their complex voting schema and noticed that the rules page had recently been changed (it's now dated October 2nd).
Previously they had planned to have 5 rounds of voting within Round 2. Last year they broke those rounds down by region, so that in the final 5th round one was voting for a winner from regional finalists from the West, Midwest, Northeast and South. This year, however, the regional aspect of the competition was hard to get a handle on from the very beginning; as finalists haven't been evenly dispersed across the regions.
For this year, round 2 has recently been simplified, with the current round of voting (September 29th to October 26th) determining the final nominees out of the 25 stations still vying for the award and the last round (October 26th to November 9th) electing a winning station. This change in the rules seems like a good move to me, especially since I never felt like the 2009 competition was an even playing field when examined regionally.
However, changing the rules mid-way through is another red flag on a long, strange path to the College Radio Woodie Award ceremony on November 18th. I still don't know how many nominees will be announced on October 26th and it's also unclear how many times one is allowed to vote. As you read through various station testimonials, it's seems like many believe that people can vote as often as they'd like.
Ultimately, though, I suppose these college radio awards are better than no college radio awards at all. At least mtvU is acknowledging and applauding college radio stations all over the country. For that I can't complain. It's also comforting to see the displays of college radio pride all over the Woodies comment board, as folks from various stations post their passionate testimonials. And that is really what it's all about: supporting the stations that we love.
The CMJ Music Marathon is coming up in a few weeks (October 20th to 24th in NYC) and in advance of that, CMJ has released the list of nominees for their annual College Radio Awards. Categories cover not only radio stations, but also promo companies, Music Directors, and record labels.
There are lots of familiar names on here, but a few that weren't on my radar. To compare and contrast, you can take a look at last year's nominees and winners. (Check out the CMJ website to see the winners from 2007 and 2006.) Attendees at the CMJ Music Marathon will be able to vote for their favorites at the CMJ booth and during College Day. Winners will be announced during College Day on Thursday, October 22. Here's a selection of some of the radio nominees:
mtvU has just released the list of the 25 finalists for the College Radio Woodie Award. As I've discussed in previous posts, this list of "top" college radio stations is based on nominations and online voting that's been taking place over the course of the past month or so on RateMyProfessors.com.
Many of my faves were never nominated, so I will be eternally bitter. I'm also really surprised that none of the amazing San Francisco Bay Area stations made the top 25. I am happy to see that several stations featured on Spinning Indie made the cut, including my most recent "50 State Tour" stop of KBGA and my second station stop on the tour: WSUM.
According to the rules listed on the Woodies website, the next round of voting (which is now open) will serve to select the first "nominee" for the final round. It's unclear what that means exactly. Perhaps the college radio station with the most votes will be a finalist? Or if it's like last year there will be regional winners every week.
It's interesting to note that this list of 25 finalists is quite different from the top 20 stations nominated for a Woodie in 2008. I'm guessing that the procedure for voting must have changed, leading to a new crop of stations taking the lead. If nothing else, that's refreshing to see a variety of stations getting some exposure.
In case you're having trouble reading the list of nominees on the Woodies website (the station names are kind of obscured by a radio tower graphic), here's the complete list:
mtvU College Radio Woodie- 25 Finalists for 2009
West (6 finalists)
Coyote Radio (California State University, San Bernardino, CA) KBGA (University of Montana, Missoula, MT) KSCR (University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA) KSSU (Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA) KUCI (University of California, Irvine, CA) KUPS (University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA)
Midwest (9 finalists)
90FM (aka WWSP) (University of Wisconsin-Steven's Point) KCOU (University of Missouri) KRUI (University of Iowa) KUOM (University of Minnesota) WCRD (Ball State University, Muncie, IN) WIUX (Indiana University, Bloomington, IN) WMUR (Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI) WONB (Ohio Northern University, Ada, OH) WSUM (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
South (4 finalists)
WASU (Appalachian State University, Boone, NC) WRGW (George Washington University, Washington, DC) WRVU (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN) WVFS (Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL)
Northeast (6 finalists)
WICB (Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY) WKPS (Penn State, University Park, PA) WPTS (University of Pittsburgh, PA) WRHU (Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY) WRSU (Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ) WTBU (Boston University, MA)
No offense to any of the nominated stations, but I have had a number of issues with the whole voting process for this award. See my post on Radio Survivor for a detailed look at why I think this particular contest has been so flawed. And if you really love one of the stations listed, take the time to vote.
This just in: After taking a careful look at the Top 50 nominees, I've found that the Top 25 nominees includes a station, WMUR, that did not appear on either the Top 100 or Top 50 lists.
How is that possible? And I wonder if it's related to the fact that similarly named WNUR popped up on the Top 50 list without being in the Top 100. It's all very questionable since nominations are supposed to be closed at this point.
Many college campuses are in the early weeks of fall semester, so recruitment is in full-swing at many college radio stations. A few recent articles profiling campus stations have been helping to get the word out about volunteer opportunities for student DJs.
Titan Radio at California State University, Fullerton
According to a piece in the Daily Titan, the student-run Internet radio station at Cal State Fullerton, Titan Radio, has been around since 2001:
"The student-run, non-profit operation is a torrent of divergent, alternative programming you won’t find on your FM dial...
'We have a wide selection of stuff but there’s an order to it,' Chadwick Vargas, Titan Radio’s promotions director, said. 'Where else would you find a disco-cooking or exercise show but college radio? We are open to pretty much anything.'
Vargas, who has been with the station since January 2008, has his own show called 'Asian Persuasion.' It highlights Asian and Pacific Islander artists both locally and nationwide."
Campus-Only Online Radio XFSR at Frostburg State
Another article describes the opportunities that students at Frostburg State (Maryland) have to get involved with radio by joining up with campus public radio station WFWM's student broadcasting project XFSR Intranet Radio. I had no idea that there were campus-only Intranet stations. I wonder why they are keeping such a low profile?
WIUX is Psyched about mtvU Woodie Competition
A profile of Indiana University LP-FM radio station WIUX rattles off a list of recent accolades, including a spot in mtvU's top 50 college radio stations listing in the College Radio Woodie Award competition. According to the article:
"The nomination for the mtvU award could open up a lot of doors for the station by gaining the support of people interested in working with the best of the best, [DJ Madeline] Dowling said, as well as catch the attention of employers.
'We have the highest level of interest from students this year,' [General Manager Ryan] Patena said. 'We had over 200 applicants for 120 to 150 time slots. We have a completely full 24-hour-a-day live DJ schedule for the first time in the past few years.'"
I was under the impression that no new stations were being nominated/added to the list; but in this week's top 50 list I see two stations that I didn't notice in the Top 100 list last week. Weird, huh?
Fabulous Northwestern University station WNUR is now amongst the 12 midwest stations in the running. Similarly, WVUA (University of Alabama) made an appearance this week in the list of 11 stations from the south. The northeast still dominates with 16 stations vying for the Woodie, while the west coast has 11.
Stay tuned. I'll be checking my list to see if the top 25 stations seem to be on the up and up. Results of the top 25 should be announced September 29th.
It looks like mtvU has selected its first round of finalists for their College Radio Woodie Award. Right now you can vote among the top 100 college radio stations (based on earlier rounds of nominations and voting) in order to narrow that list down to 50. Voting on this round ends September 15th.
So far they've got 19 stations from the midwest (yipee WBGU!), 25 from the west, 27 from the south and 29 from the northeast.
Did your favorite station make the cut? Unfortunately some really cool stations were never nominated (or nominated past the deadline) so didn't get the chance... Sorry KSPC and KFJC (to name a few). Kind of a bummer that the nomination period took place at the tail end of summer when many of us were on vacation or summer break.
Round one of voting for the best college radio station in mtvU's annual award show the Woodie Awards is drawing to a close on September 8th. For all of us college radio junkies, that means that we have one last chance to make sure our favorite college radio station is 1) in the running and 2) is getting enough votes to make it to round two.
A quick check of the current nominees (apparently over 300 stations) revealed that my current station KFJC was not on the list and that many of the listed stations in California had factual errors (KDVS was described as being at UC Merced rather than UC Davis, University of San Francisco station KUSF was described as being at UC Santa Cruz, KUCR was described at being at UC Santa Barbara, etc. etc.).
This complete lack of fact-checking definitely casts some doubt on the "contest" for me. It seems likely that some voters may just vote for their school (vs. a station name or call letters) and when the school name and station name don't match it muddies the whole voting process.
If your station isn't listed there's still time to use Twitter to nominate it and galvanize staff and listeners to vote. If it is listed, you might want to double check the listing for accuracy.
The first round of voting ends on September 8th and will cull down the list of stations to the top 100. So this will be your only chance to nominate stations that aren't listed.
Between September 8th and 15th voting will take place to narrow the list down to the top 50 college radio stations.
From September 15th to 29th visitors can vote in order to narrow the list down to the top 25 stations.
After these initial rounds of voting (are you still with me), there will be five more rounds. If it's like last year, the first four rounds will focus on voting for regional winners (West, Midwest, Northeast, South). The fifth round will select the overall winner from those 4 regional finalists. That winner will be announced November 18, 2009 at the Woodie Awards. To see the complete list of when voting will happen for each round, check out the rules page.
The college radio portion of the Woodies began last year and the 2008 winner, WICB (Ithaca College, New York), was chosen from a list of 20 finalists.
By the way, the contest page also includes a link to the top 50 stations so far. I'm happy to report that one former station of mine has made this list, WBGU at Bowling Green State University. However, a lot of really awesome stations are NOT on this list.
I am a big fan of mtvU and think that they do a lot of cool things, but this early round of voting (hosted on RateMyProfessors.com) for the Woodies seems to be a real mess. Hopefully things will get cleared up in the rounds to come.
Programming Changes at KUT and WUFT Now that it's summertime, college radio news is a bit sparse. However, there's still lots of action on the public radio front. Public radio stations KUT (University of Texas) and WUFT (University of Florida) have announced some programming changes. According to Austin360.com, KUT will be reducing the hours of some locally-produced evening shows in order to make room for a new local music show starting tomorrow night (hosted by assistant music director Matt Reilly) and for the syndicated night-time show Undercurrents.
Similarly, WUFT is expanding the amount of programming that it airs from National Public Radio and will also increase its classical programming on one of its HD channels, according to an article in University of Florida News.
KMSU Gets Local "Station of the Year" Award According to a piece on Fox 12's website, Minnesota State University radio station KMSU has
"won the 2008 'Station of the Year' by the Association of Minnesota Public Educational Radio Stations.The station earned the award for its infrastructure improvements, adding a remote portable studio in the student union, and winning the 2009 Pathfinder Award."
Radio Enlightenment on WZBC I remember catching a bit of the WZBC (Boston College) radio show "Lucid Sounds/Expanding Awareness" as I was driving around Boston during a recent trip. It was an interesting collage of astrology reporting, Tangerine Dream-like music, and spoken word. The Musings from Boston blog seems to be posting regular updates about the long-time show (the host is a psychic and has been doing his radio gig for more than 30 years), including this plug for the most recent installment on July 4th. You can listen to archives of the show from the WZBC website too.
Perk of College Radio DJ Gig: Free Music On her blog, musician Allison Weiss lists off all the ways that one can get her music for free. She reveals that one of the perks of being a college radio DJ or music journalist is free music and provides a press link for those with aforementioned credentials. It's kind of interesting to see how she acknowledges the challenges in getting people to pay for music. Of course there's a strategy behind that and I bet she's hoping that people will dig her honesty so much that they'll pony up and pay for a CD or two.
A few college radio-related items to report on today:
89 Radio Awards This Year for WMUL An article on Herald-Dispatch.com outlines the numerous awards recently received by Marshall University student radio station WMUL in Huntington, West Virginia. According to the piece:
"Marshall University’s student radio station, WMUL, set a new station record during the 2008-2009 academic year with a total of 89 awards.
The previous record was 77 awards during the 2005-2006 year. The total includes 34 first-place awards, 15 second-place awards, seven third-place awards and 33 honorable mention awards. Since 1985, WMUL-FM student broadcasters have won 906 awards."
That's a whole lot of awards. I don't even know if the stations where I've been a DJ have even entered such contests. Does your station compete?
WXYC's Student Body President Show Does student government have a voice at your radio station? According to an article in the Daily Tar Heel, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's student radio station WXYC has been airing "the Student Body President Show," in which the student government leader addresses students via the airwaves. The article states:
"Student government will not only be communicating to students through the radio, but also on Student Television and in The Chapel Hill News."
Listeners are also able to submit questions via IM and shows will eventually be podcast as well.
New High School Radio Station in UK It's so great to hear about new radio stations popping up around the globe and it's even cooler to here that this one is at a high school in the UK. A piece this week outlines the new venture:
"TEENAGERS at a city secondary school have launched a radio station, which people will be able to listen to online. Isca College of Media Arts launched Isca Radio at lunchtime yesterday, with live music from school bands and singers, poetry readings and a competition to win an iPod...The school hopes to start broadcasting live shows once students get used to putting them together.
Susy Dunne, the school’s community arts coordinator, said: 'Radio has been one of our priorities from when we decided to become a specialist media arts school. The second phase of the specialism has begun and it’s something we are keen to get off the ground.'
She said that the radio station would increases students’ knowledge of broadcast media."
It's nice to see that she understands the ongoing relevant of radio. To hear their first radio broadcast, visit the school's website.
Apparently the votes are in and, according to the All Things Park blog, Ithaca College (New York) radio station WICB has won the first mtvU "Woodie" award for "Best College Radio Station."
The voting for this award took place over a number of weeks, during which time regional winners were selected from an initial list of 20 college radio stations. The final list of nominees were the 4 radio stations that earned the most votes during separate weeks of regional voting:
"Acting as vanguards of emerging music, four college stations including KSSU, Sacramento State University; WICB, Ithaca College; WEGL, Auburn University; and WGRE, DePauw University; moved on to the final round of competition in hopes of bringing home the inaugural Best Campus Radio Station Woodie Award. Lauded for championing artists before they achieve mainstream success, these student-run radio stations were first chosen based off accolades from CMJ College Radio Awards, Princeton Review Nominations, and independent questionnaires completed by a cross-section of record labels. After four weeks of voting, college students have hoisted these musical pioneers into the final round of battle, with final voting beginning today."
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)
The UK Student Radio Awards nominees have been announced. This awards ceremony, held annually since 1996, is put on by the Student Radio Association and takes place this year on November 6, 2008.
The nominees for best UK student radio station are:
CUR 1350 (Cambridge University) Fly FM (Nottingham Trent) Smoke Radio (University of Westminster) 1449AM URB (University of Bath) URN (University of Nottingham)
An article in AllMediaScotland discusses two Scottish student radio stations which were nominated for various categories: Fresh Air (Edinburgh) and Subcity (Glasgow).
College radio awards just won't stop! CMJ announced its College Radio Awards Nominees for 2008. There are some obscure stations that I'd never heard of, but also a lot of familiar names, some of whom are nominated for the mtvU awards. One difference, though, is that CMJ also recognized stations that are known beyond their own campuses like public radio station KCRW, well-funded KEXP, popular community radio station WFMU, and satellite channel XMU.
I'm also pleased to see that one of my former haunts (WBGU) got a nomination for Specialty Music Director of the Year. Alright!
Of course there are also some notable omissions...but you can't please everyone with awards.
The winners will be announced at the CMJ Music Marathon's College Day October 23, 2008 in NYC. Here are the nominees (which, by the way, anyone with a CMJ badge will be able to vote on during the conference).
2008 CMJ Radio Station Awards
Station Of The Year KEXP-FM (University of Washington, Seattle, WA) RLC-FM (Rutgers University & Piscataway High School, NJ) WBWC-FM (Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, OH) WFMU-FM (Jersey City, NJ)
Music Director Of The Year Omar Husain (CJLO) Susie Kuo (KSSU) Cynthia Luna (WBWC) Blair Neal (WRPI) Erin Nelson (RLC)
Specialty Music Director Of The Year Andrew Balcerzak and Brian Scavo (WBGU) Robert Drucker (RLC) Emelie Hegarty (WRPI) Michelle Krupkin (KXLU) Jesse Novak (WWVU)
Best Student-Run Non-FM Station CJLO (Montreal) KSSU (Sacramento) KUOM (Minneapolis ) KVCU (Boulder) Radio UTD (Richardson)
Last week, MTV's college-themed arm MTVu announced nominees for their 2008 Woodie Awards, which will take place in NYC November 12th and will air on MTVu on November 19th, 2008. Voting in a variety of categories (best music on campus, best video, etc.) happens through November 7th.
"For the first time ever, mtvU is honoring 20 pioneering college campus radio stations committed to bringing students the latest indie and emerging music. Lauded for championing artists before they achieve mainstream success, these student-run radio stations represent the new music vanguard long since abandoned by traditional FM radio. The top stations were chosen based off accolades from CMJ College Radio Awards, Princeton Review Nominations, and independent questionnaires completed by a cross-section of record labels. One station will bring home the inaugural Woodie for Best Campus Radio Station, as voted on by their peers."
The 20 nominated stations for the Radio Woodie (Best Campus Radio Station) are meant to be "For the station out there breaking the latest, emerging music, acting as pioneers in the industry."
Nominees for 2008 Radio Woodie – (Best Campus Radio Station)
KALX-FM (University of California, Berkeley, CA) KZSC-FM (University of California, Santa Cruz, CA) KSSU (Sacramento State University, CA) KZSU-FM (Stanford University, CA) KCSU-FM, (Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO)
WUTK-FM (University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN) WRAS-FM (Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA) WEGL-FM (Auburn University, Auburn, AL) WWVU-FM (West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV) WXYC-FM (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, NC)
KSLU (St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO) KUOM-FM/AM aka Radio K (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN) WGRE-FM (DePauw University, Greencastle, IN) WDBM-FM (Michigan State, East Lansing, MI) WITR-FM (Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY)
From what I can gather, each week until the awards there will be a vote for best station among a list of 5 (organized geographically). Each week's winner will move on to the finals.
Voting for West Coast stations ended September 28th and you have until October 6th to vote for your favorite college radio station in the Northeast (WSOU, WERS, WICB, WBSR, or WUSB). Voting continues each week for the remaining stations.
There's also a very active "comments" section on the nominee page, so you can share your opinion or read what others have to say about the stations up for the award.
As with all awards lists, this one is very subjective and a lot of excellent stations were not recognized. Is your favorite station in the running? If not, who do you think should have been on the list?
A DJ at a public radio station KCCK-FM at Kirkwood Community College just won a Programmer of the Year award at the Jazz Week Awards according to an article on the Kirkwood Community College website. Additionally, a DJ/programmer (Brad Stone) from San Jose State's college radio station KSJS-FM won a Programmer of the Year award as well.
It seems that jazz music is rarely heard on commercial radio, and is definitely much easier to find on college, public and community radio stations.
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