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Apr 30, 2018

We were in the studio today with several staff members to talk about the recent awards bestowed upon The River 95.3 (Royal Broadcasting, Inc.) by the VA/WV Associated Press during their recent luncheon. (See the full press release below) Randy Woodward, host of the Wake-Up Crew along with station manager, Liz Trumbull talked about the pool of submissions and the different awards we won. Randy told us what an honor it was for him to win given his lifelong love of sports. Mike O'Dell, VP of Royal Broadcasting and the voice of Shenandoah University Basketball joined us via phone to talk about being awarded "Best Play-By-Play." Liz and host, Janet Michael also talked about the 4th award - "Best Website" that the station has won for the second year in a row. PRESS RELEASE: Royal Broadcasting, Inc., parent company of local radio stations The River 95.3 and Sports Radio 1450, was awarded several awards on Saturday, April 21, 2018 at the annual Virginia/West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Awards held at The Greenbriar Resort in Sulpher Springs, WV. There were 370 entries submitted for 36 categories, with contestants coming from 29 different TV and radio stations across both Virginia and West Virginia. The River 95.3 swept the local sports categories. Royal Broadcasting Vice President, Mike O’Dell was awarded first place for “Best Sports Play-by-Play” for his play-calling of Shenandoah University basketball games. Judges credited him for painting “a great picture of what is going on.” “Best Sports Feature” went to Randy Woodward and Clint DeHaven for their work on Sports Dogs After Hours. Their program, which airs Thursdays at 7pm on The River 95.3 is a live and local sports talk show that also features interviews of local athletes and coaches from area schools. Judges credited the show for having “great production values” and “great energy and pacing”; judges also commented that Woodward and DeHaven “made local sports sound like the pros.” Randy Woodward’s “awesome use of sound” won him the big sports award for the night as well: “Outstanding Sports Operation of the Virginias.” For the second year in a row The River 95.3 (theriver953.com) won “Best Website.” Judges described the site as “well designed and visually attractive,” as well as “easy to navigate” with “good use of interactivity.” The site was originally designed by Winchester-based, Web Strategies and is maintained by staff at The River 95.3. "When I purchased WZRV (The River 95.3) and WFTR (Sports Radio 1450) 18 years ago, I made a commitment to the local community that we would serve them in a way that honored their support of us.  The staff of Royal Broadcasting took that commitment as their own and have done a tremendous job of serving.  I think the AP Awards are a great reminder of that commitment but more important to me and to us is the on-going support of those efforts by every listener and every advertiser and every stakeholder in the northern Shenandoah Valley," says Andrew Shearer, President and owner of Royal Broadcasting.