Broadcast students pick up national awards
UM student wins Hearst competition, others top charts in BEA festival

By Hannah Heimbuch
J-School Web Reporter

photo by Garret W. Smith

Stan Pillman talks with fellow KBGA broadcasters during "The Point," a program that focused on the debate over expanding locations of Starbucks Coffee in Missoula.

There’s a good reason why as many as nine University of Montana broadcast students may be hitting the road for Vegas this month. It’s the same reason one student is sitting at the top after a highly competitive national contest.

Broadcast senior Stan Pillman landed first place in the 46th annual Hearst Awards for his entries in the radio competition – one about meth abuse in Montana and another discussing the beatings in downtown Missoula (audio) last fall.

A television version of  “Meth on Campus,” (audio) produced by Pillman and senior Andy Atkins, was also nominated in the news reporting category of the BEA’s television competition.

Meanwhile, producers of the Footbridge Forum, a public discussion panel and J-School student production, entered a spring 2005 segment that not only took first in the specialty program section of the BEA Festival’s student audio competition, but also was chosen as the Best of Festival winner out of all student audio entries.

The segment aired in April 2005 and was the fifth show in that semester’s series, “Developing South Campus: Finding the Fairway,” (audio) which covered issues surrounding development of the campus golf course.

In the television features category, seniors Trent Gary and Tiffany Toepper are nominated for their production “Ski Day;” and in sports reporting, seniors Eli Bierwag and Kevin Farmer are nominated for their segment “Lacrosse.”

These three finalists won’t know their placement until the BEA’s convention, exhibition and festival in Las Vegas, April 27 to 29. 

Junior Ryan Coleman will also receive a BEA scholarship at the festival.

photo by Michelle Gomes

Sass Gardenier shares her opinion on Footbridge Forum, "Faking the Grade" on March 8.

The Footbridge Forum, which airs on UM’s KBGA, spans each semester with five shows on one issue, alternating citizen forums with expert forums. Panelists with diverse opinions and backgrounds are chosen for the citizen forum, or picked from professors, business leaders and officials for the expert forum. The citizen group remains the same all semester, giving them time to settle into the issue and each other.

“We find that over time, they really feel more empowered,” said Denise Dowling, assistant professor in the Radio/Television department and program director of the Footbridge Forum.  

Panelists hash out the issues over an hour, interrupted by short, pre-produced programming or additional information from live reporter and producer Tyler Claxton.

Host and producer Abby Lautt said the thorough information gathering and investigation that went into the five shows were what drove home the South Campus segments.

“We worked so hard on that and covered every angle possible – we didn’t leave a single thing out,” Lautt said.

That hard work fits Dowling’s description of the program’s goal – “engage and educate citizens, and have them work toward a solution…the big picture is, only informed and engaged citizens make democracy work.”

Dowling said timeliness drove the project, the relevancy of the issue motivating the producers and panelists to create an effective program. “It was topical, because it was happening as the show was unfolding," she said. "That issue was very contentious in the community and no one else was talking about it the way we were.”

Dowling and Lautt agree the unique aspects of the program got the BEA’s attention. “It’s really exciting to know that something we started here at the University of Montana is getting that kind of recognition,” said Lautt, the executive producer and host of this semester’s program, “Faking the Grade.”

The next Footbridge Forum and last segment of “Faking the Grade” will air April 12 on KBGA at 7 p.m.

Dowling stressed the value of students’ experiences at KBGA, which has been a help to the Footbridge Forum and given many students the chance to hone their skills.

photo by Garret W. Smith

After graduation this spring the "Stanimal," Stan Pillman, plans to find a broadcast job in a place where it's always warm, which has a hockey rink and is a tight community. "I'll wear flip-flops and then go play hockey," says Pillman.

A good example of this, said Dowling, is Stan Pillman, who was a reporter and is now the news director at KBGA.           

“He has done everything that he can in order to be active in the radio profession,” Dowling said.

Pillman placed first out of 32 entries in the Hearst Foundation’s second radio competition of the year. The William Randolph Hearst Foundation hosts a number of writing, photojournalism, radio and television news competitions each year, and accepts submissions from students who attend accredited schools of journalism.

Junior K’Lynn Sloan placed 14th in the radio news competition, and the University of Montana placed 10th nationally, combining both radio competitions. Sloan's project was about Missoula Mayor John Engen and the city's 2005 mayoral race.

Pillman and the top five from each of the two radio contests will submit additional work for the semi-finals.

“Contests are funny things,” said Dowling, “but I feel very confident that Stan’s going to advance.”

His high placement also got Pillman a $2,000 scholarship out of the more than $400,000 that the Hearst Awards program gives out each year. The J-School also receives a matching $2,000.

Pillman’s two pieces came out of pressing local topics, he said. “Meth on Campus” focused on a man Pillman met one day. He had gotten addicted to meth, or “Montana coke,” when he moved to the state.

“I was moved by his story, and inspired – 'cause he went through hell, and he kicked it,” Pillman said.

Pillman felt the story was relevant and had the potential to help people, if he could get the man to talk on the air. “I saw a lot of college kids making the same mistakes he did,” Pillman said.

The second story, “Is Missoula Safe?” (audio) centered on several violent attacks that took place in downtown Missoula. Pillman said he did the story because the stories he was hearing weren’t matching up.

Police were saying it wasn’t a big problem, said Pillman, but some people who went downtown were saying the opposite. They didn’t feel safe.

Pillman, who graduates in May, takes very little of the credit for the success of his work. Instead, he credits those who provide the material.

“It’s the people, the stories. This isn’t me sitting at my computer making up art. Our job doesn’t work unless they’re brave enough to tell their horrible stories.”

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