Marshall’s student radio station created a Halloween newscast last year; this Halloween, they will accept one of the country’s top broadcasting awards.
The Murrow Award is one of the most significant awards any student radio station could receive Charles Bailey, professor of journalism and mass communications and WMUL-FM’s faculty advisor, said.
“It’s one of the top three or four awards. I mean, you have the Pulitzer award, you have the Peabody, you have the duPont award and you have the Murrow,” Bailey said. “It’s one of the few awards that most people around the country would recognize. There’s only five universities honored at this year’s event, and they’re the cream of the accreditation crop.”
Emma Johnson, the executive director and news director at WMUL-FM, said she did not realize they had submitted anything for the award at first.
“Funnily enough, I completely forgot that we had actually submitted for the Morrow Award. We got word that we had won it in August, I think,” Johnson said. “Back at the beginning of the year, Dr. Bailey pulled me in, and he was like, ‘You just won this,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool,’ and he was like, ‘That’s a big deal.’”
Johnson said it was not until she went home and did research that she realized how significant the team’s achievement was.
“It really did not hit me how big of a deal the Murrow Award was until I went home that night, and I looked into it, and I saw they have a red carpet and this big ballroom, and there’s people going up and accepting awards and doing speeches,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of crazy. It’s something I’ve never experienced before. To make it possible and to actually do that was a surreal feeling, a surreal experience.”
Johnson said one of WMUL-FM’s advantages which helped them win the award is, unlike many college radio stations, WMUL-FM has students from many different backgrounds who are able to offer fresh perspectives.
“A lot of the outsiders, they see people who come from these areas, and all they can think of is that we’re hicks who are not smart, that we don’t have the intelligence to succeed,” Johnson said. “So, I really think having a melting pot of people who can offer different experiences really sets us aside.”
Bailey said Marshall students primarily come from small, close-knit towns and hope to prove themselves at Marshall.
“They may have been a big fish in a little pond, but now all of a sudden, you’re a fish in a bigger pond,” Bailey said. “Back here, I try to give them confidence that we can do this; we can compete with anybody, anywhere. We compete with professionals.”
Johnson said one of the things she’s most proud about is how everyone at WMUL has found their specialty to work together as a team to make good newscasts.
“I’m most proud of my team for doing things that interest them, but also help them succeed,” Johnson said. “Everyone at WMUL, everyone on my news team has their own little things. There are some people who are better at anchoring, there are some people better at news than at sports or better with sports than news, but everyone is always willing to lend a helping hand.”
Johnson said the award would not have been possible without everyone in the team working together.
“I’m just so, so proud of my team. Not just for the Murrow Award, but for the AP award that we won earlier this year, as well,” Johnson said. “It’s just so surreal that we’ve put in all of that work. It’s not just me. It’s this whole team that I have surrounding me. They’re just so amazing, you know?”
Ashton Pack can be contacted at [email protected].
