Radio students take home six awards from Michigan Association of Broadcasters

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Radio students take home six awards from Michigan Association of Broadcasters
Radio students and faculty gathered for the Michigan Association of Broadcasters awards announcement on Wednesday. Courtesy | Asa Hoffman

Students from WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM won six awards in the Michigan Association of Broadcasters college radio awards Wednesday. The station placed in six of the nine categories.

“It’s good to see we have submissions deemed worthy to place in most categories,” said Scot Bertram, general manager of WRFH and lecturer in journalism.

Junior Josh Barker, who will be the station’s program director next year, got first place in the “Current Events” category for his feature The Policy Corner. He has been doing the feature since his freshman year and placed second in the category last year.

“I’m thrilled the college gives me the opportunity to do interviews and host a program,” Barker said. “I look forward to continuing next year and inviting more students to come join as Program Director.”

Barker’s submission “Michigan Voting and Election Reform” combined his usual policy research with an interview with State Rep. Andrew Fink ’06.

“Josh was able to tell the Michigan story with help from a local representative, and I think that’s why it was powerful,” Bertram said.

The second-place awards were freshman Lauren Smyth in the “Daily Newscast/News Feature,” junior Christian Peck-Dimit and senior Reagan Gensiejewski in “Sports Announcing Team,” and Ryan Young, who transferred from Hillsdale this year, in the “Promotional” and “Public Service Announcement” categories. Young also took third place in the “Current Events” category for his interview with Mike Pompeo. 

“I was very happy that Lauren was honored for her newscasts because they are uniformly excellent,” Bertram said.

Smyth said radio was one of the first things she started on campus. She said she was surprised to win an award at MAB just one semester after starting radio.

“I actually had a really bad sinus infection when I recorded that newscast,” Smyth said. “But a friend from my economics class taught me vocal exercises for clearing my voice.”