For the third year in a row, Radio Free Hillsdale WRFH 101.7 FM is the Michigan Association of Broadcasters’ College Audio Station of the Year.

“You never know what to expect going into the awards,” said the station’s General Manager Scot Bertram. “We had a number of finalists this year, so there’s always a chance that you can win, but it’s always unexpected. It’s always a great accomplishment.” 

The station’s win, announced March 20 in Lansing, comes with additional awards for individual students, including six in first place, three in second place, and five in third place. For each individual placement, the studio was given points, leading to its title of station of the year.

Junior Evan Mick won first, second, and third place in the “Sports Feature” category for his entries “Getting to the Game,” “Former Chargers: Isaac TeSlaa,” and “Sibling Rivalry: College Football Edition.” 

“I had won two out of the three of the year before, so I was hoping for a nice, clean sweep,” Mick said. 

Mick said after receiving nominations for all three places, he felt apathetic, but an interaction with a MAB conference attendee changed his perspective.

“After the ceremony, some guy comes up to me, and he’s like, ‘I’ve been going to these things for a long time and I’ve never seen anybody sweep a category before,’” Mick said. “After that I was like, ‘Maybe that was more impressive than I thought it was.’”

Mick said his third-place entry, “Sibling Rivalry: College Football Edition,” was his favorite to produce. In the five-minute episode, Mick interviewed junior wide receiver Connor Pratt about playing against his brother Aidan, a quarterback for Findlay University. 

“They get to play against each other, but they’re never on the field at the same time,” Mick said. “But they do get to play a sport in college against each other.”

Seniors Michaela Estruth and Gavin Listro won first for “On-Air Personality or Team” for their show “This Week in History.” In the 22-minute show, Estruth and Listro discuss historical trivia. 

“They were both interning here at the station this past summer, and one of the things I request they do is create some sort of show to run over the summer, to give us fresh content, and to give them some opportunities to work,” Bertram said. 

Prior to hosting the show, Estruth and Listro hadn’t worked together, according to Estruth. But Bertram said he thought the duo had good chemistry on the air.

“After their second episode aired, I ran into Michaela outside the building here, and I rolled down my window and I said, ‘That show is really good.’ And she was surprised,” Bertram said. “But they won, and I texted her about the win, and I said, ‘Told you it was a good show.’”

Senior Gwen Thompson won first place in the “Music Feature or Special” category for her show “The Timbrel and the Lyre.” This year is Thompson’s second consecutive year winning first in the category.

Thompson said she started the podcast during her junior year as an outlet to talk about her passion for folk music and history.

“I needed a vehicle to talk about this that didn’t involve plaguing or distracting my friends,” Thompson said. “So I decided I’m going to speak it into the empty microphone, bottle it up and stick it on a shelf so that I don’t have to bother people.” 

Bertram said Thompson’s show has received accolades from several people in the Hillsdale community, including retired Professor of English Michael Jordan and College President Larry Arnn.

“I was talking to Dr. Arnn recently, and he was aware of the show and knew what it was about,” Bertram said. “And he said, ‘Tell me more about Gwen Thompson’s show.’ And so I did.”

In a new category this year, junior Hana Connelly took home a win for “Human Trafficking: A Growing Scourge” in the “News Feature” category, sponsored by the Michigan Human Trafficking Commission.

“It was a long form news feature about human trafficking, specifically in Michigan,” Bertram said. “She worked really hard to do an outstanding job getting interviews, getting facts, doing the research, finding a victim testimonial online that we were able to work into the feature itself. That was really outstanding, so it was good to see her win.”

Junior Quinn Delamater won first place for her 60-second feature, titled “A Minute With Quinn” in the “Editorial” category.

“We haven’t had a ton of experience doing specific things like that, which is 60 seconds — very fast. You’ve got to get in, make your point, support your point, and then close in a way that everything makes sense,” Bertram said. “Quinn did an excellent job talking about AI technology.”

In the “Current Events Story” category, sophomores Hershey Athysivam and Stephanie Zamora won for their show “In Media Res” for an episode titled “In Media Res: The Chevron Doctrine.”

Zamora said both she and Athysivam are passionate about court cases and plan to go to law school. Their show, Zamora said, gives the duo the opportunity to tell the story of a legal case while informing the audience of various legal principles.

“We try to tell the story of the case starting from the ‘middle of the action,’ filling in the pieces with simplified legal jargon and a mostly unbiased presentation of both sides of the case,” Zamora said.

Both Athysivam and Zamora credit Bertram for his help getting their show off the ground.

“I didn’t know that Mr. Bertram had even entered our show into the MAB awards,” Zamora said. “When I found out we were finalists I was shocked enough at that, let alone to find out that we had won first place with a show we’d only produced six episodes for. It was certainly a very pleasant surprise.”

Bertram attributed the station’s plethora of awards to the diligent work of the students at the station.

“We’ve developed a really great culture at the station in which people help each other year after year, and there’s an understanding about the level of quality that we expect from students,” Bertram said. “We have a lengthy protocol that everyone goes through before things get on the air. And that’s not to say we don’t have fun at a good time — we do. We have a great time. But there is a seriousness about what we do, because it is a responsibility. We want to make sure we are responsible and our students are creating excellent, compelling, and interesting programs.”