WOBN participated in the sixth annual National College Radio Day on Nov. 4, 2016.
National College Radio Day is a yearly celebration of the unique medium of college radio. The purpose of the day is to unite students nationwide for one day every year and honor what makes college radio different from corporate, commercial radio. Colleges from all across the country took part in College Radio Day by putting on different events including 24-hour live marathons, local music showcases, in-studio concerts, community outreach and more.
The festivities started at midnight Nov. 4 in the WOBN Studios with “When Worlds Collide” featuring Al Williamson, Lillian van Wyngaarden and Bailey Ross. Shows continued throughout the rest of the day. College Radio Day closed with “When Worlds Collide” at 10:30 p.m. after a 22-hour long marathon and a live stream provided by Otterbein TV.
WOBN received giveaways and prize packages from Jet’s Pizza, Sunny Street Café, Schneider’s Bakery and the Otterbein University bookstore to give away to the listeners of College Radio Day. Jet’s Pizza went as far as to provide complementary pizzas for the staff.
Based on listener interaction on social media, the largest amount of traffic came between noon and 5 p.m., which was the time WOBN alumnus Matt Cole, 2016, came on the air for the alumni show "Pirate Radio."
Cole, a double major in Journalism and Media Communication and Public Relations, now works for the North American Broadcasting Company, also known as 99.7FM The Blitz in Columbus. Cole had been a part of WOBN's first College Radio Day in 2015 and said he was excited to come back for it again in 2016.
"I was sad that it was my senior year and I could only take part in it once, but I’m glad to see that WOBN and its staff kept it going and I’m just glad to be a part of it again,” Cole said.