Campus radio station WUTM (FM 90.3) earned several awards in the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System awards, presented Feb. 24-25 at the Sheraton Times Square in New York.
The awards won by WUTM included:
• Best Sports Play-by-Play, Other: Davis Gregory and Amber Wright, Rodeo Night No. 3.
• Best Business Director, Radio: Blaine McDonald
• Tom Gipson Award for Outstanding Engineer: Brian Thomas
The station won the Platinum Award for overall collegiate broadcast excellence for the 14th straight year.
WUTM was also a national finalist in four categories, including best radio public service announcement, best underwriting spot, best sports play-by-play (women’s basketball vs. Murray State University) and best radio news director (Callie Stone).
Dr. Richard Robinson, the faculty adviser for the radio station, said earning the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) awards demonstrates the level of excellence shown by the radio station and its participants.
“It’s always good to know that students stack up well when they’re faced with competition from other universities,” he said. “We’ve done relatively well over the years in the state competitions – formerly the Associated Press and now the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters – and regional competitions like the Southeastern Journalism Conference and the national competitions like Collegiate Broadcasters and IBS.
“We hope what it says is that the students are turning out good, quality work and we’re preparing them for the workplace.”
Robinson said earning the Platinum Award for overall excellence for the 14th straight year is especially gratifying.
“(The IBS) offers tiers of awards based upon the services you offer, the programming you have and the facilities you have,” he said. “They have Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum, and Platinum is the highest. We’ve been able to maintain for a number of years now.
“We’ve had a good run, and IBS is the largest collegiate association of college and high school radio stations in the country.” WUTM won the Best College Radio Station in the Nation in its category – universities with an enrollment under 10,000 – in 2012 and 2016.
WUTM won its awards across a wide array of categories offered by the IBS.
“We enter all that we are eligible for – things that we actually do,” Robinson said. “It’s always good to see varied awards in different areas of programming; we’re not one-dimensional. News, which is very important to me and to us here in the department; and sports, which is a big part of what we do; public affairs – those types of things.
“Overall, we hope that what we’re doing is presenting the student body and the campus and the surrounding area with quality radio programming while the students learn what they’re doing, how to do it and do it well.”
More information about WUTM FM 90.3 “The Hawk” – including news and programming information – can be found at wutmradio.com.
