Kansas State students took home a record number of awards from the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Student Awards this week.
Students from Wildcat 91.9 FM, which is celebrating 75 years of operation this year, and Channel 8 KKSU-TV won 40 awards across both audio and visual categories. The next closest school won just 12 awards. Wildcat Electronic Media also swept a record five different categories, winning all awards in a diverse range of media that highlights unique content. K-State professor and Wildcat Electronic Media advisor Andrew Smith, is pleased with the student mentality to flood the field.
In addition to 40 total awards, students from Wildcat Electronic Media took home 16 first place awards this year, after taking home 19 the year before. Smith praised the diversity of content submitted.
Smith says a point of emphasis from faculty has been empowering students to create quality content across different mediums.
Wildcat 91.9 was also named the Abraham and Borst Award winner for the best college radio station in the nation by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Awards in 2023, and was a finalist for that same award again this year. Professor Smith says the success is, in no small way, thanks to former Wildcat 91.9 chief operator and national broadcast personality Ian Punnett, who passed away last December after complications to an illness.
Smith, who took over at the beginning of the spring semester as chief operator, says Punnett would have been proud of the students for their continued dedication to journalistic and broadcasting excellence.
A full list of the students who won awards can be found on the Kansas Association of Broadcasters website.
