SRU Radio Hall of Fame announces name change, 2017 honorees

Share

radio station microphone and control board

The Slippery Rock University Radio Alumni Committee recently announced the 2017 class of the SRU Radio Hall of Fame. An induction ceremony will happen at 6 p.m., Oct. 13 in the Smith Student Center.

May 11, 2017

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - Much like a radio station swapping out its call letters after a change in ownership, the Slippery Rock University Radio Hall of Fame will soon have a new name. The frequency, however, will continue: an annual induction of SRU alumni who achieved success as media professionals.

Beginning in 2018, the SRU Radio Hall of Fame will be rebranded as the SRU Media Hall of Fame, but not before the 2017 class takes its place in the current "radio" hall at a 6 p.m., Oct. 13 ceremony in Room 315 of the Smith Student Center. The SRU Radio Alumni Committee recently announced the name change, 2017 class and the inaugural Mike McHugh Undergraduate Award for Excellence.

Named for Mike McHugh, a former SRU professor who was a member of last year's inaugural class, the new award recognizes an outstanding SRU undergraduate students work in the media. Morgan Koziar, a junior public relations major from Wellsboro, will receive the inaugural award. For the past three years, Koziar has contributed to WSRU-TV and Rock Productions, the student-run television broadcast and video production companies, as an anchor, reporter and social media director.

Mark French

   FRENCH

Highlighting the list of seven inductees is Mark French, winner of the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award. French began his 47-year broadcasting career on SRU's then-campus station, WNFT-AM, in 1968. He went on to spend time on air at WKST in New Castle; WYNG in Goldsboro, North Carolina; WILK in Wilkes-Barre; and WIBG in Philadelphia. For 40 years, French was the midday voice on WHOT and overnight sound of WSRD in Youngstown, Ohio. He also has been a disc jockey for WZKL in Alliance, Ohio and WMXY (now WKBN) in Youngstown.

Other inductees include:

  • Barb Spryn, who currently edits and produces shows for The Weather Channel. She began her career at CNN as an editor, working behind the scenes on news coverage in the U.S. and around the globe, including China's Tiananmen Square Massacre;
  • Kim Cosden (Alexander) is well known in the Gettysburg area as the morning show co-host at country music station WGTY, Froggy 107.7 FM, a role she's held for the last 30 years;
  • Doreen Marcial Poreba, the first female sports director at SRU's WRCK-AM student radio station, who has gone on to a successful career in public relations, as well as a journalist, photographer and author, garnering more than 60 awards for public relations and photography;
  • Bob Cupp, who is one of the most talented and veteran on-air personalities among SRU's radio alumni. He has earned numerous Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Awards and spent 28 years hosting the WLER morning show in Butler; and
  • Hugh Slack, who is credited for saving SRU radio from extinction in the 1980. He served as the student radio station's general manager who was a key contributor in the station's transition to a much broader FM signal and keeping it a student-run entity. After graduation, Slack worked in radio sales in Texas and Pennsylvania, before starting his own garden nursery business.

For more information about the SRU Radio Hall of Fame, contact Jim Aronson, SRU Radio Alumni Committee chair, at: jamesd.aronson@gmail.com or 646.761.6659.

MEDIA CONTACT: Justin Zackal | 724.738.4854 | justin.zackal@sru.edu

Search News