By: Kimberly Donahue
WRHU, Radio Hofstra University, was recently awarded the College Media Association’s Pinnacle Award for Four-Year Station.
John Mullen, WRHU’s director of operations, explained that every year, college radio stations and other forms of collegiate media submit work to be critiqued by professors, advisors and other people who work in student media. The award can best be titled Radio Station of the Year for a four-year college or university.
Students seem thrilled that WRHU was presented with another award in addition to The Princeton Review’s Number One College Radio Station, which WRHU won two years in a row, and the Marconi Award for Best Noncommercial Station. “I think it’s great,” said freshman speech-language-hearing sciences major, Caroline Banks-Sharp. “I know we’re one of the best radio schools in the country and that we are truly displaying our skills that help us live up to that standard.”
Staff members and students alike agree that it is no surprise that WRHU is deserving of this award. Analyzing the work that goes into WRHU’s broadcasts, Mullen said, “The voting members who judged us must feel we earned the honor for this year based upon our outstanding news, talk, public affairs and sports. We have more in-depth training, allow students to talk for half an hour or more about a subject and are the only college in the world to have the rights to major league sports. These are the things that make us special when we pitch ourselves against other people. We stand out because we have these things that separate us from the pack.”
Bernie Dennler, a junior journalism and political science double major and station manager, is aware of how WRHU is a step beyond the average college station. “The news, music and sports department[s] have high functioning teams that put out content no other college station in the world could compete against,” he said. “We are truly a high-ranking community station, and that’s what we strive to be and I’m proud that we’re continuing to be recognized for it.”