General Manager at WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM Scot Bertram poses with the award for College Audio Station of the Year in 2024. Lauren Scott | Collegian
Fourteen Hillsdale student radio productions are finalists in nine different categories of the 2025 Michigan Association of Broadcasting awards.
“It’s an exciting day when MAB reveals its finalists,” Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM General Manager Scot Bertram said. “Our students are driven to create high-quality audio content, and it is rewarding to see others recognize what we’re accomplishing at WRFH.”
Bertram said he is proud of his students for receiving these nominations and is looking forward to seeing the final results at the MAB awards ceremony in March.
According to Bertram, WRFH nominated different student projects for consideration, including podcasts, social media work, newscasts, and stand-alone episodes.
“These entries have been judged to be among the top three submissions in the respective category,” Bertram said. “From here, we find out first, second, and third place in March.”
Several categories have multiple of the top three nominations filled with Hillsdale submissions. Junior Evan Mick’s sports interview episodes were nominated for all three different spots in the Sports Feature category, guaranteeing him first, second, and third place.
“It’s kind of funny,” Mick said. “I didn’t really think it was gonna happen because I had first and second last year. It’s nice because you know you won first place. There’s no stress about what place you came in.”
Radio Free Hillsdale has won the MAB College Audio Station of the year for the last two years. It also won in 2019. Many of the students have won individual awards for their projects in past years.
“That speaks to the kind of work we’re doing at the radio station that we can compete against schools like Michigan State University and others,” junior Carissa Nisly said.
Nisly was nominated with senior Bella Dix in the category of social media use. Nisly said the nomination came as a pleasant surprise.
“PR reached out to us and said, ‘Can we have the name of your hometown and permission to contact them telling them that you’ve been nominated for this award?’” Nisly said. “So I guess it’s kind of a big deal. But I don’t see it as a big deal.”
With 14 nominations in nine different categories, students said they are excited about their chances.
“We might win,” said Nisly. “I’m proud of everyone else who’s gotten nominated and is putting up work that they’ve done podcast-wise and radio-wise.”
The real focus was not on winning awards, but on producing something that they cared about and were proud of, according to senior Matthew Karten, whose podcast was nominated for Best Sportscast. Karten co-hosts the Bleacher Boys podcast where he discussed college sports with his now-graduated student colleagues, George Accola and Paul Marchitti.
“It’s pretty awesome that we were nominated. I didn’t know how prestigious it was. I’m still kind of in shock a little bit,” Karten said. “All I know is I had fun doing it.”
Nisly, Karten, and Mick said it is easy to get involved in radio at Hillsdale, even for students with no experience.
“It’s really cool as a creative outlet,” Nisly said. “It has a little bit of a learning curve to it, but once you get it, I feel like it’s pretty easy. There’s so much creative freedom.You can talk about whatever you want for however long you want. And Mr. Bertram is just the kindest man and is willing to work with you.”
Hillsdale has been putting out quality content that enables them to compete against larger state schools on a level playing field, according to the students.
“At the end of the day, we’re just people and we have equipment to do podcasts,” Karten said. “It’s just pretty cool to be recognized for something that you care about.”
The strong list of nominations for the Michigan Broadcasters Association awards is a reflection of how the Hillsdale radio program continues to grow and expand, according to Bertram.
“You can see how far we’ve come in a very short amount of time,” Bertram said. “That’s a testament to the work put in by our students and the culture we’ve developed here in which juniors and seniors are involved in helping freshmen and sophomores get involved.”
The students are looking forward to the trip to the award’s ceremony, where they will get to spend time with their fellow radio students and see which specific awards their hard work has earned, according to Nisly.
“Our student journalists are committed to creating quality content that informs and entertains,” Bertram said. “I’m very proud of our students for this well-deserved recognition and can’t wait to see how many first-place awards we take home.”