It’s the first thing you see when you walk through the door of North Central’s radio station- a long glass case filled to the brim with trophies and awards that WONC has accumulated over the years. Recently, WONC and its team has taken home yet another award as they won the Abraham & Brost Award for Best Overall Radio Station in the Nation.
“I expected to win some of the smaller ones as far as the individual awards go,” said Russ Tanzillo, WONC’s station manager. “I knew we would be nominated for Best Station Under 10,000, but I didn’t expect to win. When we found out we won Best Station in the Nation, it kind of put a cherry on top of everything.”
The recent awards have drawn the spotlight to WONC, but the culture of success that surrounds the station is something that’s been around for a long time, made evident by the hardware that sits in WONC’s entryway.
The station focuses on not only providing a quality listening experience to their audience, but also places an emphasis on providing a solid experience to their students, most of whom hope to someday find a job in the radio industry.
“I have a lot of things on my resume that those who went to a bigger school won’t have,” said Tanzillo. “I think it just shows how a smaller station allows you more opportunities and it’s not so much about going to a big name school as it is the experiences you have, especially here with WONC.”
There’s an air of professionalism that the students carry around with them in the station. Most staff have to learn to think on their feet;there’s often not a ‘normal day’ at the radio station. There’s a learning curve that students go through, but experienced students can take initiatives if they’ve shown that they can perform well on the air. First-years are allowed to take DJ shifts and more senior staff can take advantage of the opportunities given to them.
“You want to make sure students are capable,” said John Madormo, the stations faculty advisor. “Specialty shows, are things that are earned after you’ve shown you can be responsible on the air.”
That’s not to say that the station can’t have fun when they want to- the entire station was buzzing on April Fool’s day when the station made an ‘announcement’ that they were switching to electronic dance music.
“The reaction was more than we expected,” said Madormo, smiling. “But when you win best station in the nation, it’s ludicrous think that you’ll change formats and do something different, because you’re obviously doing something right.”
However, WONC is not complacent where they are. The station is constantly looking to improve, and has recently teamed up with a new group of engineers that are helping improve some ‘behind-the-scenes’ parts of the station.
“The engineers are wonderful,” said Sam Reiman, the station’s assistant manager. “We’re working on updating the station to increase the functionality and quality of it.”
They’re a tight-knight group that puts their listeners first and continues to put out quality content, everything you could ask for in a radio station. Right now, they’ve got a hard-working group that is working together and creating something special.
