Caroline Corrigan

News Article #1

WQSU Wins Award at IBSA in NYC

WQSU 88.9 The Pulse is Susquehanna University’s on campus radio station that is run

entirely by students with faculty assistance. The radio station can be heard all around Susque-

hanna’s campus and the greater Susquehanna community, with their seventy mile radius that en-

compasses everywhere from Harrisburg to State College and in between. The station is about to

celebrate their fifty-first Birthday this upcoming May. You can find out more information re-

garding the station on their website, wqsu.com or through their Facebook page, WQSU. Re-

cently, the radio stations leadership and faculty attended an awards show to receive recognition

for their broadcasting excellence as well as to give the Susquehanna students the opportunity to

experience radio through a different and more professional platform.

On March 2, 2018 Susquehanna University’s student run radio station, WQSU went on

an informational business field trip to the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Awards in New

York City that was held at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Midtown Manhattan. The awards ceremony

recognizes excellence in several categories of college radio. Fortunately enough, the radio station

was nominated for five awards and victoriously claimed one to bring back home to campus. Be-

ing nominated in all five categories places WQSU amongst the top five to seven percent of all

college broadcasting stations. They received recognition for best on air pledge drive, which

shows appreciation for their hard work and dedication on their annual fundraiser. Along with at-

tending the award show, the officers, general manager Dawn Marie Benfer, faculty advisor Craig
Stark, who is also a Susquehanna professor and the best news anchor went to either Z100 or a

new journalism show called The Opposition.

The students started off their informational experience by attending conferences in the

forms of lecture style and round table styled meetings. These meetings facilitated discussion and

brainstorming among the student staff from other university affiliated stations such as Blaze Ra-

dio at the University of Arizona and Butler Radio 88.1 The Grizz from Kansas. The WQSU stu-

dents and staff also led their own panel discussing how to capitalize on a stations major anniver-

sary or anniversaries. The panel was entitled “WQSU Celebrating 50 Years and How to Capital-

ize.” The panel was also live streamed on Facebook in order to engage other radio station affili-

ates and for the greater Susquehanna community to see what the radio station was presenting at

the conference.

The current assistant operations manager and rising operations manager in the fall, Tess

Hallman attended the academic experience trip and shed great insight on her experience over the

weekend. Tess attended the new journalism show, The Opposition and described the experience

as “an eye opening opportunity that allowed me to get an in-depth look and broader look at a

commercial broadcasting entity. It opened my eyes to see the various skill sets that I had learned

at WQSU and how they could be translated to television broadcasting as well as radio broadcast-

ing.” The Opposition staff also lead a panel prior to the studio tour that the students saw. The

panel was offered to all conference attendees. They spoke about the journalism that goes into

producing an episode of their show. They also presented techniques that the students could take

back to campus that could be very helpful when writing WQSU’s local news.

The Susquehanna WQSU student staff was also given another excellent opportunity to

network with the other collegiate broadcasters at the conference. This opportunity was presented
to them in a multitude of forms. Not only were they given the opportunity to network with other

students during the round table discussions, but also on their own accord. The conferences activi-

ties ended at six in the evening, which allowed the students to network in their own ways and on

their own time. This networking opportunity built friendships among the radio station students

which was beneficial to them because they were formulating relationships through a social and

more professional setting.

To end the conference, the student staff left New York City feeling accomplished and as

though all of their hard work had payed off. Tess Hallman also stated that she felt, “full of pride

because unlike most college radio stations, you can really feel the fire and passion that our

WQSU staff has for radio. It is moving when you think about it, because not many college stu-

dents have that about anything, and to find eight people willing to spend a whole weekend talk-

ing about nothing but WQSU is a miracle in itself.”

This conference was extremely impressive and important to WQSU because it was the

first time that Susquehanna students have attended this conference. Therefore, their five nomina-

tions and one victory gave the station a sense of pride. This pride and affirmation shows that they

are comparable to some of the larger local commercial stations that currently dominating the

Selinsgrove market. In looking forward for the radio station, The Pulse has also been nominated

for two Pennsylvania Association of Broadcaster Awards and are looking to attend another colle-

giate broadcasting conference within the next year. Therefore proving their continued excellence

as a radio station and that great things are to come for the station.