2nd place in the Student On-Air Personality Competition
Kentucky Wesleyan College’s FM radio station, WKWC 90.3, participated in the Broadcast Education Association’s (BEA) 2024 “Festival of Media Arts” for the fourth consecutive year and picked up an award. Communication arts major Corynne Bean ’24 received 2nd place in the Student On-Air Personality Competition. Her entry was a five-minute reel-based submission and included talk sets and show segments. The award-winning submission included her remote broadcast at Kentucky Wesleyan College’s Giving Tuesday Headquarters during the College’s historic fundraising day.
BEA is the premier international academic media organization, driving insights, excellence in media production and career advancement for educators, students, and professionals. BEA is concerned with electronic media programs, placing an emphasis on interactions among the purposes, developments and practices of the industry and imparting this information to future professionals.
All faculty and student Festival winners will be celebrated in-person at BEA’s annual convention in Las Vegas April 13-16. This event traditionally produces over 250 sessions on media education, collaborative networking, hands-on technology workshops, research and creative scholarship and the Festival of Media Arts. All winners will be recognized in the online and printed program.
“To be recognized by the BEA in any form is an amazing accomplishment for colleges and universities,” said Derik Hancock, instructor of communications at KWC. “The competition was fierce this year, as it is every year. Students from all over the world competed. Corynne was among 334 total winners in multiple categories. Almost 1,900 entries were submitted. We are a smaller college compared to some that compete, so I do feel its extra special to be recognized.”
“I am extremely proud of Corynne,” continued Hancock, “I also want to mention how proud I am of all the entries Kentucky Wesleyan College submitted this year. We believe in the works of all our students and feel we can compete in all categories.”
Other submissions included students Angel King, Colton Day, Daniel Hatcher, Daylin Tolgo, Logan Reed, and Shanel Benjamin in various other categories from news, sports and podcasts.
Kentucky Wesleyan College first began competing in the Broadcast Education Association’s “Festival of Media Arts” in 2021 and has been recognized each year since. In 2021, communications arts major, Lain Taleno, won second place in the category for Best Comedy or Drama for his production of “Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Tolling Bell.” In 2022, criminal justice and criminology and history major, Veronica Kaemerer ’22, received an Award of Excellence in the Student On-Air Personality Competition.
In 2023, Rogers Fellow, Logan Reed ’24, received 3rd place in the Student On-Air Personality Competition, and exercise science major, Ricky Simpson ’23, received an Award of Excellence in the PSA, Promo or Commercial Category. Instructor, Derik Hancock, received an Award of Excellence in the Long-Form Production in the faculty competition.
“I am proud of the work our students continue to do within our Communications department and WKWC,” said Dr. Andrew Bolin, division chair, fine arts & humanities, program coordinator and assistant professor of communications arts. “We provide real-world experience in broadcast and digital media. It is exciting to showcase what our students (and faculty) are doing here in Owensboro on a national stage and be recognized for their efforts.”
Kentucky Wesleyan College has also been ranked in the BEA’s international rankings of schools based on the creative achievement of their students for two years now. The rankings, which began in 2022, are founded on the results from the Festival of Media Arts. In the last five years alone, over 6,000 student creative works were submitted from BEA’s more than 300 member institutions around the globe. The rankings are not an overall evaluation of an academic program, but an evaluation of the quality and consistency of students’ creative works produced at one institution compared to those at other institutions. In 2023, Kentucky Wesleyan College Ranked 67th out of 100 in Top Winning Overall Programs. 15th in Top Winning Audio Programs.
For more information about WKWC and to listen to the student’s shows, podcasts and more, visit WKWC.org.