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MARSHALL UNIVERSITY
Radio station breaks record with 89 awards this past year
Marshall University students Deven Swartz, left, and Ryan Epling both won broadcasting awards during the 2008-09 year. They helped contributed to WMUL's record-breaking year. The station set a new school record with 89 awards during the academic year.
Purchase this photoHUNTINGTON -- Marshall University's student radio station, WMUL, set a new station record during the 2008-2009 academic year with a total of 89 awards.
The previous record was 77 awards during the 2005-2006 year. The total includes 34 first-place awards, 15 second-place awards, seven third-place awards and 33 honorable mention awards. Since 1985, WMUL-FM student broadcasters have won 906 awards.
Marshall students and the faculty manager, Chuck Bailey, professor of radio-television production and management, received three Awards of Excellence and one Award of Distinction in the 15th annual Communicator Awards 2009 Audio Competition. They also received three Platinum Awards, two Gold Awards and two Honorable Mention Awards in the Hermes Creative Awards 2009 Competition.
The Communicator Awards come from the International Academy of Visual Arts, which recognizes outstanding work in the communications field. Entries are judged by industry professionals who seek out companies and individuals whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. The 2009 contest had more than 7,000 entries.
Adam Cavalier, a recent graduate from Montgomery, W.Va., lead the way being the recipient (or co-recipient) of 64 awards, including 27 first-place awards. Cavalier has won 98 awards during his four-year tenure at Marshall, setting a school record for an undergraduate student.
Cavalier, who also won the Jim Nantz Award as the nation's best collegiate sportscaster, will return in the fall to work on his master's degree and attempt to break the school record of 126, held by Vince Payne.
"Adam Cavalier is primarily a sports broadcaster, but he has won in every area," Bailey said. "Ryan Epling has also had an outstanding year with 11 first-place awards. Parthenon (Marshall's student newspaper) editor Brian Dalek and Andrew Rampacher also took home nine first-place awards. I am proud and grateful for the honor these Communicator Awards of Excellence bestow on WMUL-FM, the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications and Marshall University."
Bailey isn't the only one proud of the accomplishments. The students are as well.
"Perhaps the most interesting award I received this year was at the National Broadcasting Society," Epling said. "They don't allow graduate students to compete at the same level as undergraduates. Graduate students compete against professional-level competition. I was the only nonfaculty member, nondoctorate level professor to win. It's a sense of validation. When you have people from outside the area judge your work and decide it's worthy of being awarded, it's an honor. It lets people know that we are a top-level radio station and not just a college station."
Fellow award-winning student Deven Swartz said success breeds success.
"We always feel that we have to be at the same level as our predecessors were or higher," he said. "It helps respect what they've accomplished. To break the record is incredible. All of our hard work helped so much."
