Recently, the Department of Journalism at Ashland University had several finalists announced in different radio and television categories for the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) awards.
The Intercollegiate Broadcasting System is made up of higher education institutions across the nation, and the awards recognize the accomplishments of students in different college media platforms.
“[It is] a way to engage how electronic media programs, especially how the students and co-curricular media at different colleges in the country and how those programs stack up against others in the country,” Dr. Dave McCoy, faculty advisor to AUTV-20 and chair of the Journalism and Digital Media department said.
Both Dr. McCoy and Derek Wood, general manager and faculty advisor to 88.9 WRDL, agree that being a finalist in these awards is a big deal for the size of Ashland University’s Department of Journalism, since this competition is against over 1,000 colleges and universities across the country, including some large, division one universities with strong journalism programs.
The Ashland University Department of Journalism and Digital Media has been involved with the competition since 2016 and has been receiving awards ever since.
McCoy and Wood also agreed upon the fact that being finalists for these awards is a great way for future recruitment to the program.
“Our purpose here, in JDM, [is] to provide that award-winning, hands-on, collaborative experience that is all designed to help prepare for 21st century media careers, I think you could market that to students,” Wood said.
Going forward with this competition, McCoy and Wood would like to see some of the other programs from AUTV-20 and WRDL be selected as finalists.
The following categories of finalists are listed below:
For television:
* Best College/University Television Station (Top 7) – Lydia Bice, Evan Laux, Sean Repuyan, Alayna Ross, Carrie Smith

* Best Talk Program (Top 6) – The Main Street – Gracie Wilson

* Best Sports Report (Top 6) – Ben Voelker, Carrie Smith, Lewis Markham
For radio:

* Best Sports Play-by-Play Men’s Basketball (Top 6) – AU’s Men Basketball vs. Wayne State – Niko Scarlatos, Dean Paolucci

* Best Campus/Community News (Top 7) – WRDL Community Calendar – Carrie Smith 

* Best Newscast (Top 7) – News in 90 Seconds – Sean Repuyan 

This competition to Dr. McCoy, “becomes a validation of the student work and a validation of the Department of Journalism and Digital Media.” Both McCoy and Wood hope to continue doing this competition for years to come for AUTV-20 and WRDL.