The Radionian has reached 100 years of celebrating staff and students’ achievements, reporting changes within Jones College and providing highlights of students and events. The student publication was established in 1923 and has adapted to the ever-changing times through the years.
The Radionian’s main goal is to report news and information, like its namesake, the radio. When the Radionian was first created, the radio was new to society, resulting in the original staff wanting to capture that history within the name of the publication.
The original publication was described as a monthly magazine published by the senior class of the Jones County Agricultural High School. In 1943, a yearbook began with the name Radionian Special, which came out at the end of each year. The yearbook was published in addition to the monthly newspaper. In 1964, the yearbook was renamed the Lair, becoming its own publication. The Radionian took the form of a broadsheet newspaper in 1936, which is how it remained until 2020, when COVID-19 struck, making the newspaper inaccessible to students and faculty, who were required to remain off campus. The Radionian adapted once again, this time to a fully online newspaper, allowing easy access to stories from any location.
The most recent progression of the student publication took effect in the Fall of 2022, when student publication students began to collect stories for a new magazine format, better adapting to the student population and coming full circle, back to its original form in its centennial year.
Through the years, several students have earned their four-year degrees and entered the journalism and communication fields, working for newspapers, magazines and TV stations, including CNN.
Erin Skewes was the opinions editor of the newspaper in 2011. Skewes, who now works as a Digital Media Manager at WDSU television in New Orleans, Louisiana, recognizes how being a part of the Radionian staff helped launch her career.
“The basics of journalism are still the foundation of any good career today,” Skewes said. “Jones College gave me the fundamental tools to set myself up for success in my career.”
Similarly, Trey Howard started as a features writer for the newspaper in 2012 and was promoted to features editor in his sophomore year. Howard, who began his career as a reporter for WDAM in 2022, credits the Radionian to making him a better writer. Reporting at WDAM requires Howard to write his scripts for broadcasts, and the creativity that being on the Radionian required helped prepare Howard for that.
Howard fondly recalls his time on the staff.
“Being on the Radionian was fun,” he said. “We tried to get Sports Talk videos going, and it was more fun than I expected it to be.”
Kelly Atwood, the Radionian advisor since 2011, was the Radionian editor when she attended Jones.
“When students start college, it can be an anxious time to suddenly attend classes filled with strangers. The Radionian is a place where students become friends quickly,” Atwood said. “Some of my best memories of Jones include my time on the college newspaper. Student publications is where people can find ‘their’ place and lifelong friendships can be made.”
CK Chandler, who attended Jones from 1988-1990, was a member of the staff. The Southeastern Louisiana University English instructor said being on the Radionian helped him personally.
“It helped me learn how to make friends and establish trust and relationships,” Chandler said. “It gave me a place at the college when I otherwise didn’t feel I had one. It’s where I learned I wanted to be an English instructor, and I did learn many skills there that could transfer to any curriculum.”
He also said he made friendships in the class, some of whom he still talks to today. He said the class gave him good feedback and support.
“It’s the first time I felt someone had confidence in me because I was given responsibilities,” he said.
The Radionian has consistently earned the title of best community college newspaper in the state since 2008. The point-based system used by the Mississippi Press Association awards the newspaper with the most points each year, which are earned with individual awards.
Those “best of” awards are on display in the journalism classroom, along with 58 individual first-place awards the Radionian won for categories such as best front page, best layout and design and best website. Not included are the hundreds of first-place awards earned by writers and photographers who kept their plaques, nor the hundreds of second and third-place winners.
“I think the most awards we won in a year was 28,” said Atwood. “We would sweep each category, winning first, second and third place. Seeing our awards stack up really motivated students to keep the tradition going.”
In 2019, the Radionian won the top award in the community college newspaper category at the College Media Association’s Best of Show competition, held at its annual conference in New York.
“If you had the honor of being part of the Radionian staff, then you had the honor of being part of a storied history,” said Skewes. “Being part of that legacy is one of my proudest accomplishments.”
Current stories from students can be found at www.radionian.com. The staff can also be found on social media by sarching Bobcat Press.
by Jennifer Shirley