USI's Radio and TV programs win state and national awards

Students at The Edge, the University of Southern Indiana's radio station, and Access USI, its TV news program, have been recognized for their work in two national contests and one statewide contest.

The Edge, 820-AM, 90.7 FM HD-2, and theedgeradio.org is a student run station featuring music, news and sports. Access USI is a student-run weekly news program that covers campus and community news.

Kayla McCarty of Indianapolis highlighted the awards by taking second place in the national Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Festival of Arts Air Personality contest. The award marked the third consecutive year McCarty finished in the top three of this national competition, open to students from all colleges and universities in America.

McCarty also took first place for Air Personality and second place in TV Copywriting in the Indiana Association of School Broadcasters (IASB) College Competition.

The news departments of both The Edge and Access USI won numerous awards. The IASB honored Access USI with a third-place finish in School Newscast.

The Edge News was recognized for its work with five awards. News Director Maddie West of Wadesville won four awards in four different competitions. West received an Honorable Mention in the BEA Newscast category, first place in IASB News Report and second place in Radio News. She also was an IBS Best Newscast finalist as well as a finalist for Indiana Society of Professional Journalists Radio Student Best Newscast. News Reporter Mikael Drobny of Clinton was a finalist in two IBS categories: Best Spot News and Best Campus News Coverage.

Jevin Redman of Mount Vernon took IASB first place for Radio Sportscast and Mitch Mullis of Evansville took second place in the same category. Michael Cassidy of Jasper won the first place IASB Radio Spot Production award and Chris Howard was a finalist for the IBS Best Public Service Announcement award.

In all, The Edge won 19 awards. "I am so pleased to see the hard work of the students recognized." said John Morris, general manager. "What makes these awards even more meaningful is that the work we entered is from what we did on-the-air. We have some incredibly talented students who put a lot of time and effort into their craft."