MSU students were huge winners in the 2020 Michigan Association of Broadcasters Foundation contest.
This marks the first year that MSU won both television and radio station of the year in the same contest. Focal Point, which is the J-School's television broadcast program, won Television Station of the Year honors for the second consecutive year. Impact 89FM, the student radio station in the Division of Student Affairs and Services, won Radio Station of the Year honors for the 16th time.
Students were recognized for individual awards in many categories: In Sports Announcing Team (Radio), Eric Bach and Joe Dandron won first place for "Football: Michigan State at Michigan 11/16/19". Bach and Alex Mcrae won second for "Football: Michigan State vs. Penn State 10/26/19." Bach and Luke Saccone earned honorable mention for "Football: Michigan State at Ohio State 10/5/19."
In Daily Sportscast (Television), Griffin Stroin, Joe Freihofer, Sam Britten and Taylor Gattoni earned first place for "Spartan Sports Report 10-8-19." The team of Stroin, Freihofer, Britten and Ian Gilmour won honorable mention for "Spartan Sports Report 12-4-19."
In News Feature (Television), Freihofer took first for "In a Way, She's Still Here" and Stroin earned honorable mention for "Play-by-Play, Day-by-Day."
In Sports Announcing Team (Television), Freihofer and Bach took second for "MSU Men's Hoops vs Albion." Freihofer and Gilmour earned honorable mention for "MSU Men's Soccer vs Ohio State."
In Current Events Program (Radio), Taylor Haelterman won first place for "Samskee Street Artist." Amanda Barberena and Maxim Jenkins earned honorable mention for "Roundabout - City Council Candidate Series."
Barberena and Jenkins also captured first place for that entry in the Daily Newscast/News Feature (Radio) category while Haelterman earned honorable mention for "Gotcha Feature."
In the Hard News (Television) category, Kendall Ashman finished first for "Finding Her Voice" while Christine Kanerva took second for "Call if You Can. Text if You Can't."
In Current Events Program (Television), Kanerva earned first place for "I Want to See What Freedom Looks Like." Tony Black earned second for "There is No Reason to Exclude Anyone Based on Their Gender." Ashman earned honorable mention for "I've Always Wanted to be a Boy Scout."
Shannon Line and Gretchen Nowroozi took honorable mention honors in Daily Newscast (Television) for "Focal Point News 3-22-19."
The team of Haelterman, Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes, Sophie Sagan won first place in the Talk Show (Radio) category for "The Sci-Files."
Max Murphy and Evan Surace earned first place in the Promotional Announcement (Radio) category for "Movie Night." Murphy and Surace also took honorable mention in Public Service Announcement (Radio) for "Winter Driving."
The team of George McNeill, George Pham, Stephanie Stapert and Alexa Stecewicz took first in Digital Media Experience (Radio).
The group of Amanda Poole, Morgan Duerden and Brandon Rothenberg earned second place in the Digital Media Experience (Television) category."
The quartet of Andrew Acciaioli, Jason Howard, Hannah Byrd and Emily Smith took first in Documentary (Television) for "What Happened to Henry?"
In Talk Show/Scripted Show (Television), Howard and Jonathan Lantz took first for "'Dante's Inferno' TURN" while Lantz, Howard and Jordyn Wexler took second for "'Basketcase' - TURN"
Four students won scholarships, including Amanda Barberena, who won the Scripps Howard Foundation, WXYZ-TV 7 Detroit Scholarship. Dylan Kissel won the Gary A. Reid Scholarship, Kavel Mason earned the Leicinger-Biederman Scholarship, and Daryn Meredith took the James H. Quello Scholarship. Winners were announced at the Great Lakes Media Show on Wednesday.