Cromwell Media’s 102.7 The Game is recognized as Kentucky’s Radio Station of the Year at the Kentucky Broadcasters Association Awards, and the team said they set this goal last year to reach this moment.
Sports Director Vic Evans recalled that when he came on the team, his team said they wanted to win an award in the next year.
“And I was like, ‘We’re going to win an award next year. We’re going to do it,’ and for it to happen, it’s funny. It’s the whole staff, whether it be Live at Five with Steve and I, Tatum on the digital department, Mel and Rob who does a lot of background stuff, our sales team, it’s an entire team effort,” Evans said.
But Evans said they don’t do it for the awards; he said the inspiration is trying to present something unique to the surrounding area.
Going into this year, they said they aimed to provide the best sports coverage for radio in the State of Kentucky and provide the listeners with an experience that other stations were not previously.
Evans said they cover the entire third region and southern Indiana high schools, a unique range for this area.
But to get to where they realized they needed to take things to the next level to make that unique experience for the teams. Which is where Digital Marketing Director Tatum Helm stepped in.
“I wanted to build the social media aspect of it. For the players, that’s one of the largest parts. I feel like ‘the feel good’ for them is especially through Instagram. So actually coming in and making the design look perfect and match what’s going on the radio,” Helm said.
So, this initiative sparked an overhaul of the website, the social media, and their community connections.
To win the award, they said the KBA was looking at the all-encompassing package of a station and not just the content they put out.
“The criteria is community involvement, coverage, social media involvement, and digital involvement,” Evans said. To be the station here is a complete package, and what Tatum has done on our social media and digital side is tremendous. It’s been unbelievable, and it’s helped everything we do.”
They also noted that the community partnerships they’ve created and worked on have been a large part of the station’s success and what they’re capable of.
Helm said that getting involved with the community has been a crucial part of her position as they are working with and sponsored by businesses in Owensboro and the surrounding area.
“I think that has a lot to do with it because it’s a team effort at the end of the day. And it takes those partnerships to do it, and I think that was probably definitely recognized as one of the reasons we won,” Helm said.
Going into the following year, they said this shows them the successes in what they’re doing and being able to extend the work to other Cromwell stations. Helm noted that 102.7 is just one of the stations through Cromwell, and even if 102.7 doesn’t win next year, they can use some of those connections to build other stations in their system.
“We’re going to keep pushing and growing 102.7 The Game, but I think it also gave us encouragement to grow the other stations that we have so that potentially maybe we take the rock station next year and it wins station of the year, or we take our country station, and it wins station of the year,” Helm said.
