St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School’s student-run radio station, WMTN-LP, recently submitted files for nomination in a national radio contest open only to high school radio stations.

The Drury Awards, named after John Drury, was created in 2002 and was founded to promote excellence in and support for high school broadcasters and their radio stations.

There are approximately 150 high school stations in the nation, and St. Andrew’s-Sewanee radio station is one of only four stations in Tennessee.

In the 2022-23 school year, the students created over 100 original audio works for broadcast, hosted dozens of talk and music shows, including an interview-style show with the school’s headmaster, Karl Sjolund, and DJ’d hundreds of hours of live music and talk shows.

J.R. Ankney, the faculty sponsor, learned of the national contest and worked with students to submit entries to a panel of nationally recognized radio personalities and programmers. WMTN-LP submitted over 40 entries in nine categories.

Nominations

On Aug. 14, the school learned that nine students had received four nominations from the judging panel of experts.

Students and their work nominated include: Best Specialty Music Show, Kenneth Simmons, “Music From Another Time”; Best Podcast, Cameo Smith and Kendall Elder, “Sun & Moon Podcast” — Episode 2; Best Radio Drama, Luke Baird, Thomas Billups, Elliott Boyd, Kendall Elder, Charlie Relford, Cameo Smith and Reagan Vaughn, “The Lodger”; and Best Talk Show (non-sports), Thomas Billups, Elliott Boyd, Kendall Elder and Cameo Smith, “Ask Elliott” — Episode 6: “The Holiday Edition.”

The winners in each category will be announced at a luncheon and award ceremony on Nov. 4 at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. The awards ceremony will be live-streamed.

“We have some of the very best student broadcasters in the country right here at WMTN radio, and I’m proud that they were recognized for their hard work, dedication, and excellence in high school broadcasting,” Ankney said. “It is a great honor to receive these nominations in our very first year of expanded programming, and I’m excited to see where we can go in the future.”

About WMTN-LP

WMTN-LP was founded in 2002 by Sewanee Military Academy graduate Bayard “Bud” Walters, Class of 1959. Bud’s vision for a station at SAS finally hit the airwaves in April 2004 and has been broadcasting continuously over the airwaves and more recently streaming on sasradio.org.

In 2021, Ankney was appointed faculty sponsor and began a vigorous push to modernize and reinvigorate the program by creating a class and an afternoon program and inviting students to create original music shows, radio dramas and podcasts, as well as learning about being a disc jockey.