By Kari Patron/Staff Writer

Missouri Valley College earned twelve awards from Missouri Broadcast Educators Association and seven from the Missouri College Media Association. The MBEA/MCMA annual conference took place in Cape Gerardo, Missouri on April 1 at Southeast Missouri State University.

The MBEA awards included first place for Multi-camera Sport Event for the live broadcast of the Valley-CMU football game. This the seventh year in a row Valley has earned this award and the eighth time in the past nine years. Students Shu’ron Thompson, Zaire Hardin, and Kevion Long received this award. 

KMVC News, Missouri Valley’s news network, earned first place for Non-recurring News Show.

Hardin and fellow student Collin Williams also received first place for Audio Commercial (MVC Mass Communications) and Audio PSA (Vaping) respectively. Student Austin Bohlen received three first place awards for Audio News story (Three year plan), Audio Special Programs (Month) and Play-by-play (MVC-Grandview Basketball). Bohlen also received second place for Hard News (Snow closure 22).

Student Cody Hohenburger earned three awards. He won second place for Video PSA (fentanyl), third place for  Video Hard news (Mask policy update), and an honorable mention for Video Commercial (MVC Mass Communications). Sakina Komuro also earned an honorable mention for Video Commercial (Repertory dance concert).

The seven MCMA awards won by the Delta, the MVC student newspaper, included two first places earned by Marc Rodriguez for In-Depth News Reporting (Student-athletes deal with depression) and Joao Vitor Bonanoni for Opinion Column writing (Adopt-A-Viking program impacts international student’s experience).

Bonanoni also earned third place for Investigative Reporting (Survey finds women concerned about safety on campus).

Thania Figeroa won third place for Opinion Column writing (Self-care is important) and Laura Quero earned an honorable mention for Sports Writing (For many student athletes injuries are part of the game).

The KMVC news staff, which produces the news video appearing in the Delta’s website, received both second and third place in the Video category for KMVC News for Nov. 1, 2022 and KMVC News for November 15, 2022 respectively.

Director of the Viking Sports Network and Instructor of Mass Communication Ken Kujawa and Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Mass Communication Troy Hunt were speakers at the conference. 

Kujawa hosted a session about how to host a live event. Hunt’s session was titled “Bringing back the radio drama” in which he shared his love and passion for radio dramas. Hunt fell in love with radio dramas at an early age and considers it to be the premier example of audio production that can be produced.

“I’ve loved what radio drama does for us in the ability to tell interesting stories that may not be something that you make a movie out of,” Hunt said. “Something that wouldn’t work as a stage play, but certainly works in the theatre of the mind of radio drama.”

Because of this, Hunt required his radio productions students to create a radio drama

“It really pushes your to think about production in a different way,” said Hunt. “Sports is style of production. News is a style of production. We’re all telling stories but when I delve into that fictional world of radio drama, that’s when radio production becomes serious and real. We have to think about every single element.”