WKVI’s collaborative effort with the Starke County Prosecutor’s Office to share a serious message recently received statewide recognition. The station was honored with its third Indiana Broadcasters Association Spectrum Award in as many years, this time in the Local Community Involvement category. The winning entry, entitled Sexting Campaign, drew some snickers from the audience when it was announced, but they quickly realized it’s no laughing matter when they heard the student-produced public service announcements.
Starke County Prosecutor Nick Bourff wanted to raise awareness among young people of the perils of sending inappropriate photos or messages via cell phone.
“We didn’t have cell phones with cameras on them when I was growing up. This has opened the door for all kinds of potential problems for students that can really destroy their lives. To learn that it has led to such things as teen suicide is heartbreaking, and I think that makes it all the more important.”
Bourff sought the help of his target audience to get the message out. Pairs of students from Knox, North Judson-San Pierre and Oregon-Davis High Schools wrote and produced the messages.
“From Knox it was Nathan Gagnan and Maria Hasnerl. From Oregon-Davis there was Cameron Clark and Lexi Minix, and North Judson Sidnee Frasure and Ashley Eichelberger. All three groups approached it differently. I thought it was very interesting. They were all three very good,” Bouff said, and noted all three school corporations were also extremely supportive of the project.
He decided to get out in front of the potential problem after hearing a presentation on sexting at a prosecutor’s conference last year.
“At that time I had not heard of this being an issue here in Starke County, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t, for one thing. And I knew even if it wasn’t, it would be soon. I tried to come up with something to raise awareness for it so that students—so they would at least think twice about doing something like this.”
That’s when Bourff contacted WKVI and the PSA campaign was developed. The announcements play frequently on the radio station.
WKVI won a Spectrum Award for Breaking News in 2015 for the station’s coverage of that spring’s LaCrosse grain elevator explosion. In 2014 WKVI was named Station of the Year in its market size category by the Indiana Broadcasters Association.
WKVI won a Spectrum Award for Breaking News in 2015 for the station’s coverage of that spring’s LaCrosse grain elevator explosion. In 2014 WKVI was named Station of the Year in its market size category by the Indiana Broadcasters Association.
