Student Broadcast Awards

The KAB Student Broadcast Awards help give high school and college students the opportunity to show off their best work and gain recognition among their peers and from Kansas media.

Student Awards

Communication and content creation via all forms of media is increasingly important, and students must learn to create well-produced and effective messages. This program gives students valuable practice in their skills, enhances their resume, and helps prepare them as future leaders of the media industry.

The 2025 student award winners will be presented during the KAB Student Broadcast and Sports Seminar. The next awards submisson will being February 2025.

Countdown to Student Awards

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ELIGIBILITY: High School, undergraduate, and graduate students may enter, so long as they are enrolled full-time in any Kansas college, university or high school during the current school year, or the spring semester of the preceding year.

Faculty/Professionals are allowed minor active involvement in the entry, but most of the production elements/roles (producing, recording/shooting, writing, editing, talent) must be by students—at least 75%.

DISTRIBUTION: Submissions must have been publicly exhibited as part of a broadcast/cablecast, and/or on a publicly accessible website, on a publicly accessible internet platform such as YouTube or Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc.

TIMEFRAME: Submissions must be from the spring 2023, fall 2023 or 2024 spring semesters.

AWARDS: KAB Award plaques will be given in each category of each division unless, in the opinion of the judges, no award is deserved. Likewise, if there are deserving entries, a second place and/or honorable mention will be given.

PRESENTATION: Awards will be presented at the Broadcast Student/Sports Seminar in April.

JUDGING: Entries will be judged on excellence, believability, creativity and effectiveness. Judging criteria as applicable, will include theme, phrasing, salesmanship, technical, opening and closing. If in the opinion of the judges an entry is submitted in the wrong division or category, it will be moved to the proper classification.

ENTRY FEES: $10.00 per entry. Submit payment online or make send a check payable to the KAB for the total of your entry fees.

SUBMISSION OF ENTRIES:

Entry Deadline: Entries must be uploaded to www.betterbnc.com by 11:59 PM February 15.

Instructions for submitting entries may be found at https://kab.net/storage/2024/01/STUDENT-Awards-Entry-Instructions.pdf

NOTE: An entry in the student KAB Awards automatically disqualifies the work from being considered in professional KAB Awards and vice versa. High school/college/university faculty may enter their work in the professional KAB Broadcast Excellence Awards. Faculty submissions in to the professional KAB awards must have very little (less than 20%) student involvement.

Individual students may enter only one entry per category. In the case of “co-anchors” or “co-hosts,” only one person may enter per category. In the live sports coverage categories, for example, an individual can only enter once as the play-by-play announcer but may submit another entry in categories such as “Sports Color Commentator or Sideline Reporter.” Each category (besides station website, which has an entry limit of 1) has a limit of 3 entries total.

COMPETITION GROUPS:

Audio and Visual

High School; B) College (undergraduate and graduate)

DISQUALIFICATIONS: Any entry that does not follow all specifications as outlined will be disqualified. Entrants will not be notified of disqualification, nor will entry fee be refunded.

Circulation Group Codes:
High School Audio: HSA
High School Visual: HSV
College Audio: COA
College Visual: COV

High School and College Audio Categories (formerly High School and College Radio) include all audio projects such as over-the-air broadcasts, podcasts, internet radio, etc.

60 Second or less Commercial, PSA or non-commercial donor announcement (1 minute maximum): Short announcement that provides information, education and awareness and/or is intended to sell a client’s product or service or promote a corporate brand.
Best Special Programming (30 minutes maximum)
One-time or annual, (preproduced or live) programming that might include specials, performances, or other local events.
Promotional Announcement (1 minute maximum)
A creative audio used to promote an aspect of your school or station, including but not limited to a
club, team, event, or class.
Public Affairs/Talk Show (5 to 20 minutes max)
Any hosted program, interview or discussion that addresses issues of a singular topic or public interest. Subjects can include community, politics, government, education and social issues. Program length from 5 to 20 minutes.
Best Newscast (Taped or Live 5 to 30 minutes length)
Full-length program that includes newscasters, packages and/or segments that were presented live or recorded live for later presentation. Commercial breaks should be removed. (NO POST-PRODUCTION)
Best General News Story (Submit 5 minutes maximum)
This includes hard news or investigative stories. Humorous stories do not belong in this category
Best Feature (2 ½ minutes max)
Story Soft news that would play in a newscast or magazine program.
Complete Sports Feature (2-5 minutes max)
This includes short sports packages that would play in a sportscast or sports program. Note: Not highlights or game summary.
Sportscast (Submit up to 30 continues minutes, no “best of” or edited telescopes)
Regularly scheduled stand-alone sports program with packages and/or other segments. Not a talk show, not play-by-play.
Sports Play-By-Play (Submit 10 minutes max)
A segment of play-by-play of a sporting event that was originally presented live or recorded “live to tape” for presentation later (not created in post-production)
Sports Color Commentator or Sideline Reporter (Submit 10 minutes max, unedited)
A segment of the color analysis or sideline reporting of a sporting event that was originally presented live or recorded “live to tape” for later presentation (not created in post-production).
On Air Personality (max 5 minutes; must be condensed)
Entries may include a variety of styles: could include deejays, talk show hosts, radio news anchors, podcast hosts, or variety shows.
Best Episodic Entertainment Program (Submit 5 to 30 minutes)
Regularly scheduled program including game shows, comedies, dramas, etc. Excludes news, sports and talk. As opposed to the “On-Air Personality” category, this category recognizes the entire production, not just the main performer.
Station Website (to enter, submit hard copy of your site’s front page and URL. Explain mission of site, how students and faculty use the site, number of hits per average week, and number of people who maintain the site). Web site will be judged on timeliness of information on site, overall first impression, ease of navigation, creativity, interactive features.
Podcast (1 hour maximum): Episodic/serial recordings on any subject. All entries in this category must have been created as digitally distributed podcasts but can have a second life on a broadcast platform. Entries are disqualified if the podcast is an edited form of a broadcast program.

High School and College Visual Categories (formerly High School and College Television) include all visual projects such as on-air broadcasts, film projects, YouTube submissions, etc.

60 Second or less Commercial, PSA or non-commercial donor announcement (1 minute maximum): Short announcement that provides information, education and awareness and/or is intended to sell a client’s product or service or promote a corporate brand.
Best Special Programming (30 minutes maximum)
One-time or annual, (preproduced or live) programming that might include specials, performances, or other local events.
Promotional Announcement (1 minute maximum)
A creative audio used to promote an aspect of your school or station, including but not limited to a
club, team, event, or class.
Public Affairs/Talk Show (20 minutes max)
Any hosted program, interview or discussion that addresses issues of a singular topic or public interest. Subjects can include community, politics, government, education and social issues. Program length from 5 to 20 minutes.
Best Newscast (Taped or Live 5 to 30 minutes length)
Full-length program that includes on-camera talent/newscasters, packages and/or segments that were presented live or recorded live for later presentation. Commercial breaks should be removed. (NO POST-PRODUCTION)
Best General News Story (Submit 5 minutes maximum)
This includes hard news or investigative stories. Humorous stories do not belong in this category
Best Feature (2 ½ minutes max)
Story Soft news that would play in a newscast or magazine program.
Complete Sports Feature (2-5 minutes max)
This includes short sports packages that would play in a sportscast or sports program. Note: Not highlights or game summary.
Sportscast (Submit up to 30 continues minutes, no “best of” or edited telescopes)
Regularly scheduled stand-alone sports program with packages and/or other segments. Not a talk show, not play-by-play
Sports Play-By-Play (Submit 10 minutes max)
A segment of play-by-play of a sporting event that was originally presented live or recorded “live to
tape” for presentation later (not created in post-production).
On Air Personality (max 5 minutes; must be condensed)
Entries may include a variety of styles: could include hosts of entertainment programs, TV news anchors, social media performances or filmed podcast hosts.
Documentary (maximum 5 to 30 minutes)
Treatment of a single-issue in multiple parts edited into a single audio file for judging OR full-length program on a single issue that includes narration and actualities file, or edited packages.
Best Episodic Entertainment Program (Submit 5 to 30 minutes)
Regularly scheduled program including game shows, comedies, dramas, etc. Excludes news, sports and talk. As opposed to the “On-Air Personality” category, this category recognizes the entire production, not just the main performer.
Station Website (to enter, submit hard copy of your site’s front page and URL. Explain mission of site, how students and faculty use the site, number of hits per average week, and number of people who maintain the site). Web site will be judged on timeliness of information on site, overall first impression, ease of navigation, creativity, interactive features.
Podcast (1 hour maximum): Episodic/serial recordings on any subject. All entries in this category must have been created as digitally distributed podcasts but can have a second life on a broadcast platform. Entries are disqualified if the podcast is an edited form of a broadcast program.
Vertical Video (3 minute maximum): A video shot and edited in 9:16 vertical aspect ratio with the intent of posting to social media. These can be any form of filmmaking. Entry should demonstrate a creative and effective use of graphics, audio, video and interactives.