2011 mtvU Woodies Come to SXSW
Last fall I kept my eyes peeled for the chance to nominate my favorite college radio stations for the annual mtvU College Radio Woodie Award, but the opportunity never came up. I assumed that mtvU had disbanded the Woodies awards event, especially considering all of the complaints I’d had about the voting process over the years.
Well, it turns out they’ve just moved the Woodies from the Fall to the Spring. And, again, I missed the nomination period! Distracted by the shutdown at my local college radio station KUSF, the Woodie news slipped past me.
According to a press release on the MTV website,
“Once again, mtvU is also honoring 50 pioneering college radio stations committed to bringing students the latest indie and emerging music. Lauded for championing artists before they achieve mainstream success, these student-run radio stations represent the new music vanguard long since abandoned by traditional FM radio. The top stations are chosen based off accolades from CMJ College Radio acknowledgements [sic], Princeton Review top list, online nominations through Rate My Professors and Twitter and independent questionnaires completed by a cross-section of record labels.”
Between February 1st and February 8th, 50 nominees were voted on and narrowed down to the top 25 vote-getting stations. On February 15th, the list was whittled down to 10 and the final round of voting is now open through March 1st. The winning college radio station will be announced on March 16 at the Woodie Awards ceremony, taking place in Austin, Texas at South by Southwest this year. The ceremony will also air live on MTV.
Even though I grumble about whether or not any of these college radio awards REALLY bring attention to the best and most interesting stations, I’m still glad to see the attention being paid to college radio.
Here are the 10 college radio stations still in the running for the 2011 College Radio Woodie:
WASU (Appalachian State University, Boone, NC)
KCPR (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA)
WKNC (North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC)
WPRK (Rollins College, Winter Park, FL)
WSOU (Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ)
WSBU (St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, NY)
KTSW (Texas State University, San Marcos, TX)
WVUM (University of Miami – Florida)
WUTK (University of Tennessee – Knoxville, TN)
CJLO (Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
WRGP (Florida International University, Miami, Florida)
WRAS (Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA)
WRHU (Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY)
WLOY (Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD)
WKPS (Pennsylvania State University – University Park, PA)
WVPH (Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ)
WERW (Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY)
WJPZ (Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY)
WHUS (University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT)
WPTS (University of Pittsburgh)
KUPS (University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA)
KXSC (University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA)
WPNR (Utica College, Utica, NY)
WPSC (William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ)
To read about the voting process for the last College Radio Woodie Award (from 2009), take a look at my coverage on Spinning Indie. The 2009 College Radio Woodie went to KUPS and the 2008 College Radio Woodie (see nominees here) went to WICB.
