Senior Emily Schutte at last year’s IBS awards ceremony.
Courtesy | Scot Bertram

Hillsdale College’s student radio station, WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM, is a finalist for the best college or university radio station with under 10,000 students in the national Intercollegiate Broadcasting System awards. Several student shows and features are also finalists. 

IBS, a national college radio and audio organization, will announce the winners at its national conference on Feb. 21 in New York City, according to General Manager Scot Bertram. Senior Emily Schutte competed against finalists from schools across the country to win the IBS award for best newscast last year. 

“Being a finalist for best college, university station, that’s a reflection on the work that everybody does here, all the students do at the station,” Bertram said. “And everyone who’s a finalist this year and most years has a serious shot to win that category.”

Schutte is a finalist for best documentary this year. She produced her documentary, “The Story of the Star Spangled Banner,” for Bertram’s advanced radio production class last spring.

“I was shocked because I didn’t know Scot Bertram had submitted it to be considered,” Schutte said. “But I was really pleased because that documentary was something I was really proud of.”

Schutte said the documentary is about Francis Scott Key’s poem “The Star Spangled Banner.” The lyrics to the national anthem were taken from a verse in the poem. Schutte interviewed Professor of History Bradley Birzer for the documentary, and her classmate Gavin Listro ’25 read the entire poem for the recording.

Bertram is a finalist for the best radio faculty advisor for the second time in his 10 years working for Hillsdale. Bertram won the award for best faculty advisor in 2023.

“I always see that as a reflection of the credible work the students do,” Bertram said. “Whatever instruction and assistance and knowledge that I’m able to give them is reflected in the work that they are able to produce, and the really high quality content that we do around here.”

Senior Peter Andrews is a finalist for the award for best specialty music show for “Classical Context.” In the show, which ran for one season in the spring of 2025, Andrews played and analyzed pieces of classical music.

“I’m just excited to know that my vision of making art music accessible to the 21st century audience through Classical Context has hopefully reached more people,” Andrews said.

Senior Hana Connelly is a finalist for the best news feature award for “Human Trafficking: A Growing Scourge.”

Senior Erika Kyba is a finalist for best specialty show. She has produced the show “Poetry Fix” for three years, according to Bertram.

“What’s really neat about that is almost every week, you can hear her improving in a small way, which is one of the things we strive for, always getting better,” Bertram said. “And she has added things and adjusted things and introduced different voices and different ways that she presents the poet, and the poem, and how she describes it.”

Lauren Smyth ’25 is a finalist for the best news director. “Lauren is a superstar, she’s a rockstar, when she was here, she just did an outstanding job,” Bertram said.

The Collegian Week in Review’s segment on “Camp Hope Homeless Shelter” is a finalist for the award for best campus or community news. The show featured juniors Alessia Sandala and Megan Li and senior Catherine Maxwell as hosts and senior Sydney Green as the guest reporter.

“I was excited that the work of my reporting had been seen and appreciated,” Green said. “And I was excited and surprised. I was definitely not expecting that.”

Bertram said that one of his jobs is to see what each student is interested in and find the best way to make that into quality, entertaining content.

“Every term and every year and every class is different,” Bertram said. “It’s hard to make plans, because some groups will have certain strengths, and others will have different interests, and they want to take something in this direction or that direction. So I always think one of the keys is just to encourage as many students as possible to participate.”