FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, Oct. 21, 2005
Contact: Dave Wellman, Director of Communications, (304) 696-7153
 

WMUL-FM students win national finalist award

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Students from WMUL-FM, Marshall University’s public radio station, won a national finalist award in the 2005 Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) National Mark of Excellence Contest in the category Radio Daily Newscast for the “5:00 p.m. Edition of Newscenter 88” broadcast March 31, 2004.

The finalist award was presented to the WMUL-FM news staff and news director Melanie Chapman, a senior from McConnell, W.Va., at the SPJ National Convention during the Mark of Excellence Awards Luncheon that took place Oct. 17 in the Grand Ballroom of the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev.

Dr. Chuck G. Bailey, professor of electronic media management in the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Marshall University and faculty manager of WMUL-FM, said the students on the radio station’s news staff competed with other student newscasters from colleges and universities who previously had won  first-place awards in the 12 SPJ regional competitions.

Two finalists and a national winner were selected from the 12 regional winners.  WMUL-FM had won the first-place award for best newscast in Region 4, making it eligible for the national award.

“Our radio students have established a tradition at WMUL-FM of being able successfully to compete at the national, regional, or state level with other student-operated college radio stations,” Bailey said. “This time WMUL-FM student newscasters finished as one of the top three presenters of broadcast news in the country in direct competition against 12 other first-place regional award-winning news staffs.  This solid performance in the respected SPJ Mark of Excellence Contest is evidence of the quality work performed by our talented broadcasting students at Marshall University.

The other finalist award winner was the FM 90.7 news staff of WFUV-FM at Fordham University.  The national winner was the Evening Update news staff at California State University – Northridge.

“The winners of the SPJ Mark of Excellence awards represent the best in college journalism and certainly are the result of exceptional work on the part of those chosen for the awards,” said Jim Highland, SPJ vice president for campus chapter affairs.  “These young people set the agenda of their college campuses, and they clearly demonstrate that college media are in excellent hands.”

For more information on the Mark of Excellence Awards or the Society of Professional Journalists, persons may contact Heather Porter at (317) 972-8000 ext. 204 or hporter@spj.org.

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