For the fourth time, WZND Radio, Illinois State University’s student radio station, has won BEA’s Signature Station award. WZND Radio has won this award three times previously, and this award marks the third-consecutive year WZND received the award.
The Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Signature Station award is an annual international contest to recognize the best college radio station. The station is selected based on excellence in areas like community involvement, programming, branding, logo development, website design, social media content, and student management.
WZND 103.3 FM is the first station to win this award four times and the first station to win in three consecutive years.
The judges for this award shared more about why they chose WZND Radio in an email announcement sent to entrants: “I’m so impressed with these programming samples! Some of your on-air talent sound like seasoned professionals. Your disc jockeys did a great job of letting the music be the star but using their announce breaks to inject their personality and give the listeners an opportunity to connect. News programming was polished and informative. Sports commentary was consistent and clear. Really loved the promotional material as well! The political promo was cute and informative. I love your note about your logo. Great branding! Very impressive all around! Well done!”
Steve Suess, WZND Radio faculty advisor, is proud of the work the students put into the award submission and work they do every day. “Receiving this award again means that we have built a culture of success here at WZND,” Suess said. “It is our fourth time receiving this award in six years, and this is our third time in a row. Winning it this time around with a different group of students from years past, when we have won this award, shows that our success goes beyond one group of students. It’s an enormous credit to what we are able to provide students every year and to what we do here at the station.”
WZND Radio will have the opportunity to accept this award on April 17 at the Broadcast Education Association’s annual convention in Las Vegas. The School of Communication has launched a crowdfunding campaign to cover costs of the trip to accept this award.
More information about the convention can be found at https://www.beaweb.org/conv.
For more information or to listen to WZND Radio, visit https://wznd.com.
