The College Music Journal has recognized West Virginia University’s student-run radio station, WWVU-FM, in three categories for the annual College Radio Awards.

The station has been nominated for Best Community Resource, Biggest Improvement, and Music Director of the Year for WWVU-FM’s Music Director Jimmy Fortuna.

“This is very exciting news,” said WWVU-FM student worker Sara Cottle. “CMJ is our version of the Billboard Music Awards.”

Voting for the awards takes place at the CMJ Music Festival in New York City beginning Oct. 15. Voting is reserved for attendees of the event, and winners will be announced at 4 p.m. on College Day on Oct. 17.

“This is recognition not only by a publication but by other college students across the country,” said WWVU-FM program director Alec Berry. “We were nominated by our college radio peers for the role we serve within an expansive scene. Miles away, people pay attention, and this is proof. No one did this but the students. This stations runs and produces because of the students inside, focused on whatever goals they hold. These nominations serve as a reflection of what we offer WVU.”

Berry believes the nominations prove that WWVU-FM doesn’t exist only in a ‘vacuum.’

“The station physically sits off to the side inside the Mountainlair – shoved behind Jacs—and I think sometimes the attitude towards us can be condescending, and that we’re put off as a lesser student organization,” Berry said, “but these national recognitions say otherwise. They say WWVU-FM is a part of a larger community, and that the students inside – the volunteers dedicating their time – are talented, driven and think outside of the small box they physically sit in.”

One of the proudest nominations comes in the ‘Best Community Resource’ category. Berry said the station strives to serve as a community hub with its alternative takes on culture, art and journalism.

Fortuna, who is nominated for music director of the year, said WWVU-FM is somewhat of a last bastion of hope for local music.

“We’ve proven ourselves as the place to turn if you’re trying to jumpstart a music career here in West Virginia,” Fortuna said. “I had a great conversation this past summer with a Morgantown native who left after graduating from WVU to start a band in San Francisco. They’ve enjoyed success out there, but wouldn’t stop telling me how badly he wished WWVU was the station it is now while he was here in town. He went as far as saying that we’re the local scene’s only hope, and the growth he’s seen and heard about from across the country is staggering. It was flattering, sure, but what I really took from that was a much clearer perspective in regards to our role and our power to help people, even change people’s lives. Incredible to me, we’re just college kids.”

For more information on WWVU-FM or to hear a live stream of “The Morgantown Sound,” visit http://u92.wvu.edu/.

-WVU-

ta/js/09/20/13

CONTACT: Sabrina Cave, Student Affairs Communications
304.293.2506, Sabrina.Cave@mail.wvu.edu

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