SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — WSOU 89.5 FM, the student-run radio station of Seton Hall University, recently took home two awards from the College Media Association’s Pinnacle Awards program. The awards were announced during the organization’s annual convention in Atlanta, Ga., during the final days of October.
The station earned first place honors in the Best Radio Sportscast category for its broadcast of the Seton Hall men’s basketball Big East Championship game against Villanova University. WSOU’s sportscasters on the game were Clayton Collier on play-by-play, and George Balekji and John Pirsos, both on color commentary. A portion of the broadcast can be heard at https://soundcloud.com/wsou/seton-hall-mens-basketball-wins-big-east-championship-1.
WSOU was the second-place winner in the Best Television Sportscast category for a web video feature about former minor leaguer and Seton Hall assistant baseball coach Eric Duncan. The segment focused on Duncan’s success as both a coach and an undergraduate student with a 4.0 grade-point average. Duncan graduated from Seton Hall in May 2016. The story was written, produced and reported by Collier.
The College Media Association’s Pinnacle Awards honor the best college media organizations and individual work. The contest is open to student work produced for any college media organization, including print, broadcast and online outlets.
“We are thrilled that Clayton, George and John’s work has been nationally recognized for excellence,” WSOU general manager Mark Maben said in a press release. “This comes on heels of another WSOU sportscasting team earning honors in CBI’s National Student Production Awards. At WSOU, an important part of our mission is pre-professional development for the next generation of broadcasters. These awards speak to quality of the training students receive at the station and within Seton Hall’s College of Communication and the Arts.”