PSU communication students win big at state level

Continuing to add to their wall of honors, PSU’s Communication students earned a collective 29 awards at the Kansas Association of Broadcasters (KAB) Awards. 

The KAB Awards are an annual state competition allowing both high school and collegiate students across the state of Kansas to be recognized by industry professionals for their work. Of the 49 entries submitted by PSU, 29 earned awards, the highest number of cumulative awards in the competition this year. 

“I enjoy when the students win awards because one of the reasons I got into teaching was to see students succeed,” said Troy Comeau, department of communication professor. “And so, to see students succeed at the state level is a great feeling.” 

Comeau said he was not surprised by the number of awards the students won. 

“I’m not going to say I’m surprised” he said. “I’m definitely excited for the students. We try to do our best here to make sure they’re successful and compete well on both the state and national level.” 

The competition features categories covering a variety of aspects of both radio and television. Students entered their projects into the competition in February, where they were then judged by communication professionals. 

“It feels really good to get first in something, especially on the video,” said Ty Goss, senior in communication with emphasis in broadcasting, who won first place in the Promotional Audio or Video category for his video titled “Pittsgiving” which featured students thanking Pitt State donors. “I put way too many hours into it, so it was really nice to get a reward.” 

While the competition only recognizes first, second, and an honorable mention, the format of the competition allows students the opportunity to gain insight from industry experts. 

“The best thing, I think, besides the awards and all that, is that when they get judged, judges are required to submit comments about the entries,” Goss said. “… So even if you don’t get the award you still get commentary from industry professionals on what’s good, what they liked, what they didn’t like about your entry. I think it helps out the students too, to know what they could do better and what they did well.”  

A portion of the winners will attend the KAB 2019 Student Seminar, Student Awards, and Career Fair to formally receive their awards and have roundtable discussions with those experienced in the industry on Tuesday, April 2. 

“It’s definitely a networking opportunity but it’s more for the students to learn from professionals what to expect from the business, and with those roundtable discussions learn more about the business itself,” Comeau said. 

Looking to the future, students placing first and second will be moving on to regional competition, entering their projects to be judged by the South Central Broadcasting Society with the results revealed in the early fall. 

“And so that is their next step, they’ll enter regionals and see how they do there,” Comeau said. “We’ve had some pretty successful students at regional completion also. I’m not going to say I’m surprised. I’m definitely excited for the students. We try to do our best here to make sure they’re successful and compete well on both the state and national level.”