We are pleased to announce that Penguins in the Desert has won an honorable mention for the award for Outstanding Media Effort of the Year at the 2009 Xcelsior awards.

The Xcelsior awards recognize student groups and leadership on the Binghamton University campus. Last year we won the award for Outstanding Broadcast of the Year, but this year the Xcel center (the organization that hosts the awards) consolidated their award categories which eliminated specific media and organization categories and consolidated the media awards into this one category - consequently making it even more difficult to win.

Our show was up against other WHRW radio shows, the many different magazines, newspapers, the campus TV station and other publications produced or broadcasted on campus, as well as several of the individual articles/columns that these publications nominated.

To account for the fewer awards, Xcel presented the award to one organization and then handed out honorable mentions where necessary - which is different from years past. Our competition was stiff, and one of the big newspapers on campus took home the plague, but we got a trophy, so it's all good! We figured that one of the big print publications as a whole would take the award, and was hoping for at least an honorable mention  We are honored, excited and appreciative. We can't even begin to tell you how happy this makes us!


We are stoked and we want to thank you guys for your support!


Below is our nomination - which had to be 1,000 words or less - we have exactly 1,000 ;)

The nomination is for the period of end of Spring 2008 (April on) up until the begining of the Spring 2009 (cutting off at March) semester .


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Penguins in the Desert (PitD) is a weekly three hour radio show broadcast on WHRW hosted by twins Jeri and Hayley [our last name]. Since it first aired in Spring 2006 PitD has become WHRW’s most successful student run weekly program. Each week PitD exposes their listeners to new music often debuting new songs from both new and established bands. Several times each semester PitD conducts interviews with musicians from independent and major labels ranging from up and coming bands to established and well known bands. Last year PitD was honored to win the XCELsior award for Most Outstanding Broadcast of 2008 and has since continued to improve and has become an exceptional media effort here at Binghamton University.

      PitD has regular listeners world wide, across the country, on campus and off campus through terrestrial radio and whrwfm.org’s online radio stream. For the six consecutive weeks since WHRW has been in Spring Programing, PitD has has broken the record for the most listeners tuning in at the same time through WHRW’s online radio stream every single show this semester. Each week they have broken the record they established the previous week and has even capped the stream's listener capacity. While unable to count how many people are listening to the show through Campus Channel 42, or 90.5FM on the radio, WHRW can keep track of how many unique computers tune in via the web stream. This semester, more people have been tuning in to PitD online, than any other program on WHRW ever. This accomplishment is especially noteworthy not just because of the sheer amount of people tuning into a normal, non-speciality radio show, but because it signifies that PitD has not only retained listeners but has a tangible record that shows that they are gaining new listeners each week. Not only does PitD have an audience that extends beyond the Binghamton campus and community, but the content on PitD is of substantial quality. It is difficult to get people to tune into WHRW during the work day as most people are in class, school or work so it certainly impressive for the twins' show to be able to garner so many listeners during the afternoon in the middle of a weekday.

      As DJs and co-hosts, the twins are very comfortable on air and have chemistry with one another that cannot compare to any other broadcast on WHRW. Their show sounds very professional and is enjoyable to listen to. PitD find a way to engage listeners and include requests, dedications and input into the show. PitD is not only entertaining, but is also insightful. Hayley and Jeri have extensive knowledge about music and songs that they play. They often provide listeners with information on how to learn more about the music that they hear, they update their audience about upcoming tours, as well as relevant music news.
 
PitD has conducted interviews on their show that has garnered worldwide attention. Often listeners have said the questions the twins have asked and the interview as a whole was the best interview with that artist that they have ever heard as it’s not only an entertaining broadcast, but because of the significance of the information released through the radio show. In fact it is not only the listeners that recognize the twins professionalism, several of the musicians that they have interviewed have claimed that their interview with Hayley and Jeri was the best interview they have ever done and that the questions they were asked were insightful and professional.

An exceptional interview that he twins conducted on PitD occurred with musician Amanda Palmer the singer/songwriter of the Dresden Dolls, a band that’s on a major label and has played sold out headlining shows across the world, even opening up for bands like Nine Inch Nails and Panic At The Disco. The twins conducted the first interview with Palmer post-vocal chord surgery to talk about her upcoming solo album that she was working on with Ben Folds as producer. On PitD Palmer debuted major information about her album that she had not released anywhere else before, including the CD’s release date and exclusive information about a book project she had just confirmed with acclaimed author Neil Gaiman. As a response to this, fans of both the radio show and Palmer took this information and entered it as the first official source in the Wikipedia page for Palmer’s WHO KILLED AMANDA PALMER CD. It is notable that PitD was used as the official media broadcast to release this exclusive information and that Palmer did so through PitD instead of releasing it on her website or even on a commercial media outlet or website.
 
Although the radio show regularly has an abundance of listeners, the amount of people tuning into the show extends past the weekly airings. The twins update their myspace blog each week with not just a list of songs that they played, but also make every past show available for stream or download, enabling even more listeners to tune in at their leisure. They also put up for stream their past interviews and celebrity station identifications that they have gained, utilizing their website as a resource for their show in the fullest possible capacity. In the past two years since it’s creation, their web page has been viewed almost 16,500 times, and their streaming audio has received just over 14,000 hits!
 
The radio show has received a lot of positive feedback from other DJs and listeners a like. Amongst the appreciation numerous listeners have mentioned that while the PitD opens the door for them to make musical requests, they don’t feel the need to because the show already plays music they want to hear. Many listeners often say they look forward and that it is even the highlight of their week!

Aside from people sending in positive feedback PitD has been top friends on MySpace with some well known acts, including Dredg - the band "Penguins in the Desert" got their radio show name from!


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SUPPLEMENTAL INFO:

     Pengiuins in the Desert is accessible to their listeners in several online mediums in addition to WHRW’s requestline (607-777-2137)

      AOL Screen Name: WHRWPenguins
      G-Mail: WHRWpenguins@gmail.com
      Twitter: www.twitter.com/whrwpenguins

      MySapce: www.myspace.com/whrwpenguins

      Show Blog: www.blog.myspace.com/whrwpenguins

      Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Penguins-in-the-Desert/38136852103

      Imeem to stream all celebrity interviews:
http://www.imeem.com/penguinsinthedesert/playlist/qRk0IMaZ/interviews-music-playlist/

Penguins in the Desert in the Who Killed Amanda Palmer wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_Amanda_Palmer#Background

Penguins in the Desert radio promo announcement stream:
http://www.imeem.com/penguinsinthedesert/music/_s3D3sba/hayley-and-jeri-promo-penguins-in-the-desert-radio/

TESTIMONIAL:
One listener, Mike, tuning in from California recently said of a recent show, “Great show, by the way. I can be a pretty harsh critic for media stuff, and I really enjoyed it. Much better than I expected (I really hope that doesn't come across as harsh...it's just...college radio can be hit and miss). You and your sister sound comfortable, and work well together” (http://www.theshadowbox.net/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=3029c96bbf8062a0aa7b76808c4c972b&topic=7325.msg186841#msg186841).