FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 25, 2008
Contact: Dave Wellman, Director of Communications, (304) 696-7153
 

WMUL-FM students win three awards in BEA competition

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Students from WMUL-FM, Marshall University’s public radio station, received one first-place award, one second-place award, and one third-place award during the Sixth Annual Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts Student Audio Competition ceremony Friday, April 18 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Dr. Chuck G. Bailey, professor of Radio-Television Production and Management in the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Marshall University and faculty manager of WMUL-FM, said the students competed with other broadcasting students from colleges and universities throughout the United States.

“Winning never comes easy, but for Marshall University, the student broadcasters of WMUL-FM consistently earn top honors in direct competition with nationally recognized colleges and universities,” Bailey said.

Dr. Corley Dennison, dean of the School of Journalism, also noted how the WMUL students continue to be competitive at a national level.

“More than 500 entries were received for the audio and video awards and we won or placed in three different categories,” Dennison said. “Furthermore, Adam Cavalier won the largest scholarship available in the amount of $5,000 (in BEA’s 2008-2009 competition).  We are truly proud of the work of our students.”

The first-place award winning entry in radio news was:

Radio News – Newscast

“The 5:00 p.m. Edition of Newscenter 88” with producer Griffin McElroy, a junior from Huntington; news anchors Matthew Gajtka, a recent graduate from Weirton; Kimberly Burcham, a senior from Huntington; and sports anchor Robert Iddings, a sophomore from St. Albans; broadcast Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007.

The second-place award winning entry in audio was:

Sports play-by-play

WMUL-FM’s broadcast of the football game between Marshall University and East Carolina University played at Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington, W.Va., Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007.  The students calling the football game broadcast over 88.1 were: football play-by-play announcer Ryan Epling, a graduate student from Wayne; color commentator Brian Dalek, a junior from McMechen; sideline reporter Andrew Ramspacher, a sophomore from Dublin, Ohio; and studio producers Scott Hall, a graduate student from Stephen City, Va., and Boom Madison, a freshman from Olympia, Wash.

The third-place award winning entry in radio news was:

Radio news – feature news story

“The Pumpkin House: Trick or Treat Night,” written and produced by Adam Cavalier, a junior from Montgomery, that was broadcast during the “5:00 p.m. Edition of  Newscenter 88,” Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007.

Broadcast Education Association (BEA) has more than 1,400 academic and professional members, and 250 academic institutional members.  It was founded in 1955, and its mission is to prepare college students to enter the radio and television business.  BEA’s members share a diversity of interests involving all aspects of telecommunication and electronic media.

###