IBS has been supporting college and high school radio and media since 1940, and is led by a team of passionate volunteers and is sponsored by different businesses and organizations including the College Radio Foundation. More information about IBS is available at ibsradio.org.

This year, the conference was held at the Sheraton Times Square in NYC. DJs and Executive Staff took the train into the city to meet stations from around the world, and get advice and inspiration for bettering their show and the station. As a DJ and the webmaster, I took part in social media meet ups with other online representatives for the station, and attended panels on station promotion, programming, community involvement, and I even attended a panel on how to write and perform a radio drama! 

In addition to our regularly scheduled conference program, our station hosted a panel of our own: DIY Station Operations - Optimizing Your Resources. Our panel consisted of myself, the Webmaster, our General Manager, Training Coordinator, Head Music Director, Promotions Director, former General Manager, and alumni advisor Mindy Hoffman, Engineer at Audacy. We discussed tips and tricks for the day-to-day operations of a radio station in a do-it-yourself enviroment. We got specfific for how we organize our events, promote our station, structure our departments, and more! It was an amazing experience, speaking to so many peers from different stations, from west coast to the east coast and even out to the Philippines, we were so thankful for the opportunity to hear stories, offer advice, and open the doors for future collaborations ;). 

At the end of the conference, IBS hosts an awards ceremony where schools and DJs are nominated for awards across different categories. This year, 90.3 The Core was honered to be finalists for several of these awards including Best Station ID for our Nermal ID, Best Social Media Campaign for Show Us Your Show, and finally the award for Best College/University Radio Station! Out of all the entries for these categories, it was truly an honor to be nominated, and be considered among the best stations in the world for the second year in a row!

But we were even more excited to take home two awards this year: 

Best Station Blog!

That's right, the blog you're reading right now is award-winning! In fact, according to the judges, it's the best station blog in the country, and the world! So thank you for reading, and keep coming back to stay up to date with 90.3 The Core! 

Best Community Outreach Event!

Our second award of the night goes to our Valentine's Day Coffee House from last February! We had an amazing turnout with student and community artists sharing the space to sing, play, and read poetry! Credit for this award goes to everyone who helped out with this wonderful and award-winning event, and especially our Events Coordinator at the time, now General Manager, Rachel Sosik!

All in all a successful conference for 90.3 The Core! We even managed to take a wonderful tour of Audacy with our alumni advisor Mindy, to see what it's like to work in commercial radio! If you're interested in seeing more from our trip to the IBS Conference check out our instagram and facebook!

Rachel Sosik receiving the award for Best Community Outreach Event

The Core's IBS Panel DIY Station Operations!

Core representatives in the elevator at Sheraton Times Square

In the Lobby of IBS!

Michaela Schwab - Best Station Blog and Rachel Sosik - Best Community Outreach Event