On April 29 to April 30, WSYC put together a special event on campus.

WSYC 88.7 FM, the Shippensburg University student-run campus radio station, hosted “Up All Night” on Friday. From noon to noon, WSYC gave away prizes every hour on scheduled radio shows, in an effort to increase student awareness of the radio station, as well as increase the number of listeners on campus in a 24-hour period.

“Up All Night” started back in 2012, but it did not occur last year. Last year, the station lacked the personnel and resources necessary to make such a huge event happen. This year’s event, however, featured some big changes.

The station featured an on-campus event that took place in the Ceddia Union Building multi-purpose room. The event, “Up All Night Live,” featured some of the station’s bigger prizes of the day from 7.p.m to 1:30 a.m. This year marked the first year of “Up All Night Live.”

The live event featured DJs that provided students with music, pizza, black jack, video games, raffle tickets and a live performance by SU student and musician Tyler Michael Law.

The event also featured some of the night’s biggest prizes that included tickets to two Major League Baseball games, tickets to a Billy Joel concert, a Bluetooth speaker, a $50 Sheetz gift card, an Apple music gift card and the grand prize, tickets to see Beyoncé in concert in Philadelphia. The budget for the event prizes was $2,000.

“It’s one of the nights that I know WSYC is going to be successful,” WSYC music director, Sam Fritz, said. “We have a bigger outreach than I think people know, but at the same time we are not as big on campus as I would like us to be. But with ‘Up All Night’ and the hype that we managed to put around it, I know that people are going to be listening.”

“If I said I wasn’t tired I’d be lying to you,” WSYC general manager Jimmy Bailey said. “It’s a really fun experience to see people get excited over just honestly giving stuff away. Because who doesn’t love free stuff? It’s at the end of the semester where people are really stressed out so it’s a good moment to give them just a little bit of stress free fun, where they can listen to some good music and hang around some good people.”

The event had a turnout that the station’s public relations director, Matt Trust, expected, but has a ton of room for growth. Trust used the prize budget to purchase prizes, while Bailey and Fritz along with Joey Marinelli worked hard on setting up the event and making sure it ran smoothly. Justin Goodhart, a station DJ, also put in a lot of time.

“It’s huge. Not just for the university but for the radio station to have the opportunity to bring people in, raise awareness for the radio station,” Trust said. “It’s great for people to come in and have a chance to win tickets to some of the hottest concerts and sporting events this summer.”

The live event in its first year was a success. WSYC provided students with good entertainment on the final weekend of the semester. With more time and one live event under its belt, WSYC has a lot to look forward to in the future of “Up All Night.”

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