This year, the John Drury Awards recognized 18 of KMIH 88.9 The Bridge’s student broadcasters. The finalists traveled to Chicago for the awards ceremony in mid-October.
This achievement is especially noteworthy since entries local to the contest were at more of an advantage. “High school radio is huge in the Midwest, and there’s a lot of big, really successful programs with lots of students, so it was an honor just to go there and to be nominated for a few,” adviser Joe Bryant said. “There could have been other Washington schools entering, [but] we were the only nominees from our state.”
Senior Sophie Prock received first place for Best Public Affairs Program for her interview of last year’s city council candidates, earning KMIH 88.9’s first first-place win in their two years of entering the competition.
“Sophie did a great job: she asked probing questions, the production quality was good. She did a ton of research, and when you’re looking at public affairs programming, it really fit the bill completely,” Bryant said. “It was something very community centric. I was just happy to see that judges in Illinois could also see the value of that.”
In addition to Prock, 17 other students won runner-up awards. Bryant was also a finalist for Best Radio Station Adviser.
“The guy who won, he built a whole program called Sleepy Hollow Radio. I certainly didn’t mind losing to somebody that was that passionate about student voices and mentoring high school radio.”
However, this isn’t the only example of the Bridge’s success. The radio station has earned over 100 national awards and is a very popular class at MIHS. Bryant believes students are the driving force of its success. He also notes that the station is very fortunate to have good funding and mentors with experience in broadcasting.
“The community is very engaged in what we do here, and also supportive.We have real microphones, we have good digital editing software, we have a wonderful place to go live on the radio—not a lot of high schools have that. You also have—I don’t want to brag, but—pretty good advisers. I worked in radio 25 years before I came here; Natalie Woods, who also assists with the program, was in TV news for 20 years, so you have industry people who can come in and lead the way.”
2022 John Drury High School Radio Awards
1st Place Best Public Affairs Program – Sophie Prock – City Council Candidate Interviews
2nd Place Best Sports Talk Program – Power Predictions – Gill MacDonald, Dylan Shobe, Noah Perlman
2nd Place Best Sportscast – Sophia Azzano
2nd Place Best Website – Andrew Howison, Sophie Cartwright and Staff
3rd Place Best PSA – Sophie Cartwright – Self Appreciation
3rd Place Best News Feature – Grace Go – War in Ukraine Affects Local Student
Finalist Broadcaster of the Year – Sophia Azzano
Finalist Best Radio Station Adviser – Joe Bryant
4th Place Best Specialty Music Show – Behind the Billboard – Sophia Azzano, Theodore Freeman and Jonathan Aggar
4th Place Best Radio Drama – The House in Cypress Canyon – Sadie Jensen, Annabelle Hegarty, Jonathan Aggar, Jenna Martin, Sophia Azzano, Theodore Freeman, Caroline Capuano
4th Place Best Use of Social Media – The Secret Room Above our Auditorium – Jonathan Aggar, Sidh Shroff
5th Place Best Newcast – Yasmine Mohammad
