College-focused mtvU has nominated KRUI 89.7 FM, the UI’s student-run radio station, for one of the channel’s Woodie Awards.

“We’re really, really excited,” said Patrick Quinn, KRUI’s marketing director.

The College Radio Woodie, as it is called, is given annually to the best college radio station in the country, as selected by online voters. Ithaca College in New York won the first radio Woodie, which was awarded in 2008.

“We’re in some great company,” Quinn said about the station’s competition. “To be in that company is a real honor.”

The contest started with more than 300 nominees across the country. Fan voting reduced that number to 100, then 50. Now, KRUI is one of only 25 stations still in the running for the award.

“It shows that our listenership has improved,” said Dolan Murphy, the KRUI programming director. “It’s a good sign that we’re making progress.”

Quinn said that this is the first time KRUI has gotten this far in the process. It has received the votes necessary to keep moving along in the competition because it has been working on attracting more fans and listeners.

“We’ve been getting our name out on campus. Our staff has gotten a lot bigger and more motivated to get our brand out there,” Murphy said. “This whole new [Internet station] has gotten us a lot of publicity as well.”

While the station has been encouraging listeners to vote for the Woodie, Murphy said that KRUI’s staff has played an integral part in keeping the station in the running as well.

“It shows that we have a pretty motivated staff who are willing to click a button for us,” Murphy said. “Which is nice.”

So far, KRUI has gotten word out for the nomination primarily via Facebook and Twitter, and it is working on on-air promotions, Murphy said.

Fans of KRUI can vote for the station an unlimited number of times at radiowoodie.ratemyprofessors.com.

MTVU will announce five finalists on Oct. 26. The winner of the Woodie will be named on the Woodie Awards website on Nov. 18.

—by Tommy Morgan Jr.