The fall of 2016 brought with it a new school year, a new football season and a new feature of WAUG reporting. WAUG, the student run radio station here on campus, has begun live coverage of home football games.
Though this style of coverage did exist in previous years through WAUG, the group’s advisor, Dr. Ian Davis, recently decided to send an email out to students, inviting them to apply for this special opportunity.
Two Augustana students, David Shapiro and Daniel Murray, applied  and were given the position. Shapiro and Murray, despite a lack of radio experience, jumped at the opportunity to get involved.
“We both really enjoy sports and know a lot of people on the football team, so we thought it would be fun and we would be good at it,” Shapiro said. “Pretty much our love of sports (drove us to apply).”
During the games, the duo have a specific formula for calling the game. Murray feels their style may be different than what would typically be heard when tuning into sports on the radio.
“Typically, there is a color commentator and a play-by-play, but neither David nor I had a preference. David does the offensive play-by-play and I do the defense,” Murray said. “I do a pretty good job of breaking down the defensive fronts as far as football analysis.”
Currently WAUG only has commentated on home football games, but the idea of moving forward and covering other sports is a strong possibility. Murray and Shapiro were hired directly for covering home football games, but they, along with Davis, would like to have the opportunity to expand possibly to other sports.
“I’d like to have every major event (covered). It really comes down to what do students want to do,” Davis said.
Murray, with ample sports experience under his belt, would like to expand to sports he also knows well, including basketball and wrestling.
“(Shapiro and I) thought that basketball would be pretty cool. I also thought about wrestling broadcasting since not a lot of people are familiar with it,” Murray said.
Murray and Shapiro have their sights set on basketball and wrestling, but  Davis would also love to see soccer covered. However, he recognized that without an interested person, soccer will not be able to be covered.
Davis said WAUG would love for other students on campus to express interest and desire to get involved in radio broadcasting.
“Expression of interest and a willingness to show up is really what matters. We can take that interest and turn it into a program,” Davis said.
Dr. Davis stresses that WAUG is built for the students and the Augustana community. If students want to participate in the live broadcasts, all they need to do is contact Davis and be interested in something new.
“We make WAUG open to anybody who wants to get involved,” Davis said.