In late February, three members of St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School’s Radio Broadcasting Program flew to New York City to take part in the annual Intercollegiate Broadcasting System conference and award ceremony with the goal of bringing home more trophies home than they did last year to display in the WMTN-LP studio.

This year’s competition included nominations from more than 3,000 schools in the IBS’s collegiate and high school divisions. SAS student deejays were nominated for eight awards, and, after bringing home one “best in the nation” award last year, hoped they would return to Sewanee with more trophies to display in the WMTN studio. And that they did.

Senior Griff Wilson, otherwise known as DJ Wilcon, was first to have his name called in the “best liner” category. This was Griff’s second time winning in as many years, as he was the sole WMTN deejay to beat out his competition last year.

After going through seven of the categories that WMTN deejays were nominated for, they were holding just one trophy, matching last year’s total. The final category remaining was “Best Student Station Manager,” for which senior Sam Weintraub, known by his team as DJ Sam I Am, was nominated. The WMTN deejays and faculty held their breath, waiting anxiously for the announcement. When DJ Sam I AM was revealed as the winner, the audience erupted in raucous cheers.

“It was great to see our two senior deejays recognized for all of their hard work,” said Stephen Brehm, WMTN’s faculty adviser. “Both are very deserving of these awards. Anyone who knows Griff can tell you that he has a great voice for radio. As his teacher, I can tell you that he puts in the hard work to match.

“And DJ Sam I Am is really the heart of our radio program. The amount of time and energy he has invested in WMTN is nothing short of extraordinary. I know that their success motivates our younger deejays, and I hope others are inspired to give radio a try. Having them pull this off in their last semester at SAS? I couldn’t have scripted it any better.”

Residents of Sewanee and surrounding communities can listen to WMTN on 93.1 and 103.1 FM as well as online at sasradio.org. Questions about the radio program at SAS should be directed to Stephen Brehm at sbrehm@sasweb.org.