For the 56th consecutive year, KYW Newsradio (103.9 FM / 1060 AM) in Philadelphia offered a diverse and talented group of high schoolers from across the Greater Philadelphia area the opportunity to participate in the station’s one-of-a-kind Newstudies program. In October and November, students attended sessions in Audacy’s corporate headquarters, where they learned the principles of broadcast journalism from award-winning media and news professionals from KYW Newsradio and other news outlets throughout the city. 

The students culminated the program by producing their own news reports that aired on KYW Newsradio. More than 70 students graduated from the program in a ceremony on Saturday, December 9, at Temple University.

“Newstudies is in a class by itself,” said Tom Rickert, Assistant Brand Manager and Director of Podcasts for KYW Newsradio. Rickert also emceed the graduation.

“There’s no other program that gives students an opportunity to learn from top professionals in news and sports media at one of the best broadcasting facilities in the country,” Rickert continued. “And five decades in, we’re reuniting with parents who graduated from Newstudies when they were in high school, who are now watching their teenagers graduate from the same program. We hope to keep investing in the young people of Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley for generations to come, and we’re thrilled to be able to work with our partners at the Klein College of Media and Communication to make this happen.”

At Saturday’s graduation, KYW Newsradio awarded the $2,000 Richard Monetti Scholarship to William Bowens of Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School. The yearly scholarship is named for a Newstudies graduate killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and honors a student whose work demonstrates overall excellence.