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Korn is in his first year as sports director of Cornell’s student-operated radio station KRNL FM-89.7. Korn and his crew have helped bring credibility and renewed enthusiasm to the station, established in 1948, through broadcasts of a variety of Ram athletic events via the radio and the college’s website.
“Throughout my 17 years here, athletic broadcasts have kind of been hit and miss,” said Dick Simmons, Cornell’s interim director of athletics. “Last year, Casey got a group together that had an interest in doing it. We upgraded the radio equipment this year. Now we’re at the highest level we’ve ever been with sports broadcasting. We’ve never had such a wide spectrum of students wanting to do it.”
In the fall, KRNL broadcast all 10 football games and selected home matches for volleyball and men’s and women’s soccer. The station also covered the volleyball and soccer teams in Iowa Conference tournament play. KRNL has aired all home basketball games and a select few on the road this winter. Korn said he’s working on broadcasting the NCAA Division III National Wrestling Championships, co-hosted by Cornell, on March 7-8 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.
“We do it for all the parents out there that can’t see their teams play,” Korn said. “Any important games we wanted to try and put on the air.”
In comparison, last season KRNL aired only one football game and selected home games for basketball.
“That was it. We had four broadcasters at the most, it was all volunteer, nobody organized it,” Korn said. “This year, we got the funding. The feedback has been positive.”
Korn credits general manager Mike Mulholland, staff advisor Matt Zorn, station manager Jamie Adams, technical director Rene Hilbach-Barger and the Cornell students for their contributions.
“I’m a radio listener at heart. I love radio,” said Hilbach-Barger, a senior student. “Putting this together was a three-prong attack. We needed to improve our equipment, improve our schedule and find students to broadcast. The biggest challenge will be finding the funding to keep everything going at a professional level.”
“We’re improving, we’re just not there yet,” Korn said. “It’s a great experience for college students and its fun. That’s the main thing. We have fun.”
Fans can listen live to Ram events by clicking the KRNL link on Cornell’s athletic site http://www.cornellcollege.edu
