KCOU falls short of winning College Radio Woodie
The station lost to the University of Puget Sound's station.
Published Nov. 17, 2009
The mtvU College Radio Woodie Award was announced this week, with KUPS/90.1 FM, The Sound of the University of Puget Sound, taking the No. 1 spot.
The other four stations in the top five were WCRD/91.3 FM of Ball State University, WPTS/92.1 FM of the University of Pittsburgh, MU's KCOU/88.1 FM and Coyote Radio of California State University, San Bernardino. The bottom four stations were not ranked.
The full award show will be aired at 10 p.m. Dec. 4 on MTV.
"I was disappointed and a little surprised," KCOU General Manager Jonathan Hutcheson said. "I definitely feel that we had it locked up."
KCOU has yet to be officially contacted by MTV with the results of the competition, but Hutcheson said he was very surprised that a university as small as Puget Sound could win the competition when it was based solely on voting, especially considering the wave of support MU received.
Hutcheson said he was still pleased with how far KCOU made it in the competition.
"People have gotten really into it, really excited," Hutcheson said. "I think that it's a great recognition of the hard work and the efforts of everyone at the station to make it what it is and to provide real content. It's just an overall great station for students and the residents of Columbia to listen to."
Co-promotions Director Hannah Hayes said the station has come far since the difficulties it experienced last year.
"I really think the fact that we've developed a promotions team this semester has helped a lot," Hayes said. "We've pretty much gone from zero to 60 in getting the word out about our station and stuff, and I really think that helped a lot. I think a lot of people really started listening to KCOU again."
Hutcheson said he is pleased with how much the station has improved in the past semester.
"Considering where things were a year ago it's pretty phenomenal," Hutcheson said. "To make it to the top five in the country shows that we are definitely doing something right."
There is one thing Hutcheson said he would have done differently, though, as he was in Seattle when the results were announced on mtvU's Web site.
"I would have probably gone to Puget Sound studio's Thursday or Friday and plastered the station with our logos and stickers if I had known a video would have been made," Hutcheson said.
In all seriousness Hutcheson said he was happy with the station despite the competition results.
"My staff has been amazing," Hutcheson said. "The student support, the faculty support has been amazing. While maybe we didn't win the whole thing I don't know how big a deal that is when we can feel good about being the best in Columbia. I would rather be here for them than a bunch of people that don't listen to us elsewhere in the country."
Voting for the mtvU College Radio Woodie consisted of repetitive voting. There was no limit to the number of times any one person could vote in the contest.