WXOU, Oakland University’s student radio station, accepted the Station of the Year award from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters yesterday.

The station’s victory brings an end to an 11-year run of dominance by Impact 89FM, the college radio station at Michigan State.

Station General Manager Phil Berard put into perspective what the win means to him.

“Personally, this award means more to me than anything I have accomplished here at Oakland,” Berard said. “I may value it over my degree, but only time will tell. It is the culmination of an entire year of hard work and it feels amazing to be validated. WXOU pulled together as a team and we won this award.”

Submissions, the bulk of which were recorded after May of this year, covered a range of categories including sports, public service announcements, news and promotions.

“As the year has gone on, we’re constantly recording our shows and putting together our submissions,” said Programming Director Katie Hepfinger. “Every submission was listened to by a committee we assembled so we could analyze it from all angles and tweak anything necessary.”

Sports Director Matt Pocket was able to put into perspective how hard the seniors like Berard have worked for this.

“He busted his tail on nearly every game in the 2009-10 basketball season, working in the studio,” Pocket said.  “Chris Nesbitt, who is no longer at WXOU, was a huge part of that year, too. Both of those guys worked a ton of games and I think that’s where the work ethic of this staff, under Phil, was really established.”

Berard talked about the extra motivation this staff had to win this year, courtesy of their rivals at MSU.

He said an article in the (Michigan State) State News said that their student radio station kept their awards — given in the form of gold records — in a box on the floor.

“It began when we went to the MAB awards in 2011 and had to sit there and watch them take home the Station of the Year Award,” Berard said. “Their demeanor, their smugness, all of it just really left those of us who attended with a bad impression of them.  That was when I first decided that we were going to have to win this thing.”

WXOU has 11 executive staff members and around 100 volunteer DJs. Promotions director Sean Varicalli said the group is aware of the target on their back.

“For next year, it’s important that we get an earlier start on our submissions and improve on submitting in a few different categories,” he said. “There are categories we didn’t even place in, so we want to do better there. We want to repeat, badly.”

Music Director Luke Phillips talked about what the award means to him.

“In my four years at OU, I’ve spent nearly all of my time between classes at the station, and I’ve come to consider it as a kind of sacred ground,” he said.  “In addition to just being a great college radio station, WXOU is, to me, a second home, and frankly a little community or societal microcosm in and of itself.”

WXOU can be heard at 88.3 FM on-campus and online at wxou.org