Broadcasting students win record number of awards

Pittsburg State University’s campus television station, CAPS 13 (Cable Access Pitt State) took home a record 17 awards from the Kansas Association of Broadcasters’ annual banquet on Monday, April 2, in Wichita.

While the program has recently been recognized at both the state and national level for the quality of college broadcasts they produce, Broadcasting Director Troy Comeau said the students should be proud of this year’s accomplishments.

“The most awards we’ve ever won at the state level was nine two years ago,” Comeau said. “To nearly double that in a couple years is impressive and the students should be very proud of their accomplishments.”

Students from Pittsburg State competed in a variety of broadcasting categories against students from all other colleges and universities in the state. Pittsburg State received six first-place awards, four second-place awards, and seven honorable mention awards this year.

First Place Awards
First place winners were Dannie Wesley, a senior from Miami, Okla.; and Kelci Williams, a senior from Uniontown, Kan.; for their enterprise news package, “Stripper.” Williams also won a first place for her complete sports feature, “Miners Bowl Rivalry.” Seniors Christina Brown, from Joplin, Mo.; Brandon Taylor, from Olathe, Kan.; Jacob Schreiner, from Sharon, Kan., won a first-place award for their station promotion announcement, “CAPS 13 Pitt State Football.” Taylor and Schreiner, along with freshman Dallas Cross, from Olathe; senior Rye Addis, from Oswego, Kan.; junior Tennyson Williams, from Pittsburg; and junior Andrew Daugherty, from Cherryvale, won another first place for their sportscast, “Pittstate 360.” A sports play-by-play of “Pittsburg State vs. Truman State Football” won a first-place award for Addis; junior Zoel Lopez, from Coffeyville; sophomore Tyler Swezey, from Drexel, Mo.; and senior Pam Peters, from Richmond, Kan. Peters also won a first-place award for her documentary, “The USS Dunlap: Recollections of Those Who Served.”

Second Place Awards
Second place winners included Lopez and Daugherty for their sports play-by-play of “Pittsburg State vs. Fort Hays State Football,” and Taylor and senior Grant LaForge, from Chanute, for their station promotion announcement, “CAPS 13.” A second-place award went to Joshua Ames, a senior from Winfield, Kan.; and April Green, a senior from Pittsburg for their enterprise news package, “Beyond the Game.” Another second-place award went to Jake Fontes, a junior from Thayer, Kan.; and Greg Melching, a senior from Tulsa, Okla.; for their radio commercial, “JB’s Sports Bar and Grill.”

Honorable Mention
Honorable Mention went to Lopez for his D.J. personality air check, “Brett Martinez Air Check,” and to Addis and Swezey for their complete sports feature, “PSU Intramural Flag Football.” Taylor and Brown also received an honorable mention for their public affairs program, “Study Abroad Trips,” and Taylor, along with Jordan Beggs, a junior from Columbus, Kan.; received another honorable mention for their complete sports feature, “Pete’s Life.” Honorable mention also went to Williams; Beggs; Brown; Lopez; Daugherty; Schreiner; Melching; Sweezey; Peters; Addis; Cross; Trent Kling, a junior from Wichita, Kan.; Andrew Reeves, a freshman from Buhler; Zack Howard, a senior from Pittsburg; Brad Hester, a senior from Bucyrus, Kan.; Tim Mobley, a senior from Pleasanton, Kan.; and Angelo Fears, a junior from Kansas City, Kan., for their sports play-by-play of “Pittsburg State vs. Central Missouri Football.” Kling and Swezey also received an honorable mention for their radio sports play-by-play of “Colgan vs. Labette County Boys Basketball.” In addition, Tim Wass, Jr., a graduate Communications student from Parsons, Kan., received an honorable mention for his graduate research paper “Music and Advertising Effectiveness.”

While Comeau gives most of the credit to the students, he says they have some very knowledgeable faculty teaching them the ropes.

“We are very fortunate to have the knowledge and talents of Assistant Professors Leo Hudson and Vic Miller teaching with me in the broadcast area,” Comeau said. The combination of backgrounds we have makes our students very well rounded and sought after in the broadcast field.

“Six first place awards were the most of any university in the state in the television category,” Comeau said. “It will be hard to beat next year, but I believe in the students of Pittsburg State and know they can accomplish wonderful things if they set their minds to it.”

CAPS 13 is Pittsburg State University’s cable access channel airing student programming on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday’s during the school year.

---Pitt State---