Three Hillsdale radio students placed as finalists in the 2025 College Broadcasters Inc. awards in October. Junior Luke Miller, Erin Osborne ’25, and Lauren Smyth ’25 were all ranked in the top four for their respective categories.
The CBI awards, held annually, are a national system of recognition for outstanding radio and television production among college students.
Smyth placed second in Best Newscast or Sportscast for “Lauren Smyth News.” Smyth was involved in the radio station throughout her college career and has been recognized by CBI awards in the past, including first place awards she won for best newscast in both 2022 and 2024. She said she finds radio, especially newscasting, to be rewarding.
“It’s just a fantastic opportunity to be a storyteller and to see a story from a unique angle and then share that story with other people,” Smyth said. “Talking on the radio is like having a conversation over the dinner table with a bunch of your best friends whom you’ve never met.”
According to WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM General Manager Scot Bertram, Smyth has a natural talent for newscasting.
“She always has a great sense about what’s important to include in a newscast, which stories to put up front, how to use sound, which is very important, how to tell a story, and just a wonderfully comfortable delivery where she’s talking with you and not at you to bring the news,” Bertram said. “And that’s been rewarded multiple times over the years.”
Smyth expressed excitement and appreciation at being recognized for her work, and specially credited Bertram with having taught her what she knows about radio.
“Mr. Bertram is a fantastic leader of the radio station and he really is the one who made all of this possible,” Smyth said.
Osborne placed fourth in Best Feature News Reporting for her piece on Battle of the Bands, a music competition held by men’s music fraternity Theta Epsilon. According to Bertram, her piece stood out for its natural sounds, as Osborne interviewed attendees with the sound of the bands playing in the background.
Miller placed third for Best Documentary. His documentary was about “The Alamo of the Pacific,” a nickname for the Battle of Wake Island, one of the first battles in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor.
“In spite of the fact that we lost the battle, a massively outnumbered and outgunned American Marine force stood their ground and wreaked havoc on the Japanese naval forces, inflicting 10 times the amount of casualties they incurred and sinking several important Japanese battleships with just a few land guns,” Miller said.
Miller said he focused on that battle because of how incredible of a moment it was.
“There are few instances that better represent the American spirit than what these soldiers did at Wake Island, and they gave Americans the first glimpse of hope for victory in their darkest hours,” Miller said.
Bertram praised Miller’s production, noting that he did an outstanding job with the pacing, flow, and overall presentation of the documentary.
“This was a really excellent documentary about a story that not a ton of people are aware of and done very well with interviews and sound effects,” Bertram said.
Currently, Miller hosts a show at the radio station called “Under the Radar,” which analyzes various activities by the federal government each week such as executive orders, bills, and Supreme Court cases.
Bertram expressed optimism for next year’s CBI awards, saying that the radio students and staff hope to win but the end goal is to create content of which the students are proud.
“We don’t create content to win awards, but our content is good enough to win those awards,” Bertram said.
