This past weekend, WHJE students took to the streets of New York City in their rest-less pursuit for an IBS award. Normally, this blog is maintained in third person, as it has been for the past several months. However today is different, as it’s: The IBS Diaries!
Day 1: Thursday, March 6th
After a 6am flight, we landed in the most royal borough in all of the city: Queens. Before long we hopped on the yellow school bus and took a ride uptown to midtown. Lunch was the next quest, and while everyone all ate at different places, a good bit of everyone had bagels for their late breakfast early lunch.
After relaxing in rooms for a quick bit, we toured one of the most important places in New York City: The 9/11 Memorial Fountains and Museum. There we honored all 2976 lives lost and learned more about the event. The rest of the evening was spent resting up and getting ready for the most exciting part of the night, Broadway and Basketball!
Half of the group split to hop on the subway and take it all the way to Brooklyn to the Barclays Center to see the Nets! The rest went to watch The Great Gatsby at the Broadway Theater, starring Sarah Hyland and Ryan McCartan as Daisy and Gatsby respectively.
After a near 24 hours of being awake, WHJE finally went to bed and finished day one.
Day 2: Friday, March 7th
The second day of the trip was packed full of conferences from 9:30am until 5pm. WHJE staff got to hear from industry professionals about their start in the media business.
The highlight of the day was hearing from Paul “Cubby” Bryant and his start in Radio and advice for the future broadcasters in the room.
At 5:30pm was what everyone was waiting for, the awards! WHJE won first place for 23 different awards! However for this blog, the most important award won was Best Station Blog.
Finishing out the night, WHJE went ice skating and shopping to celebrate the amazing work that was recognized.
Day 3: Saturday, March 8th
After a late night, we had an early morning, a 7:45am call time for breakfast at The Stardust Diner. WHJE staff was serenaded by the famous singing waitstaff!
We followed this by celebrating International Women’s Day the best way possible by paying a visit to Miss America herself: The Stature of Liberty! The ferry ride was cold but it didn’t stop the group from seeing the beautiful sights of the city.
The next stops were the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. Everyone lived their Gossip Girl, Jessie, and Night at the Museum dreams!
The day didn’t stop there, because immediately after the museums we hopped on the subway to go to Little Italy.
With amazing food in our systems, we went to our final landmark: Times Square. We enjoyed some last minute souvenir shopping and soaked up the bright advertisements and sounds of the city.
Day 4: Sunday, March 9th
Our final day was started with time to get one last delicious breakfast before returning to where we started the trip: Laguardia Airport.
All in all, the trip was a massive success, with our 23 awards won and memories to last a lifetime. But the conferences don’t end there, because the following day WHJE does it again, this time in Indiana.
