BOONE—Appalachian State University’s Board of Trustees have approved naming the WASU-FM radio broadcast studio for alumnus Wayne Sumner of Boone.

The Wayne L. Sumner Radio Studio will be located on the first floor of the Department of Communication’s George G. Beasley Broadcasting Complex, projected to open in 2010 at the corner of Rivers and Depot streets.

A rendering of the Beasley Broadcasting Complex

Sumner is president of Jackson Sumner & Associates, an excess and specialty lines managing general agent in Boone. He is a 1975 graduate of the university’s Walker College of Business.

“Wayne has been a steadfast friend of Appalachian since his days as a college student here,” said Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock. “Together, Karen and Wayne Sumner have truly made a difference for Appalachian through their leadership and financial support. Their involvement and support for the Brantley Risk and Insurance Center and the athletics programs have touched the lives of countless students. When you consider his love for broadcasting and his past work in television and commercial radio, I can’t think of a more fitting honor than to name what will be a state-of-the-art facility in his honor.”

Although a business graduate, Sumner has a long history in radio.

“My interest in broadcasting goes back to my childhood,” said Sumner. “When I was only about three years old, despite a severe speech impediment, I would walk around with a 50-foot-long extension cord and pretend I was a radio announcer, even though no one could understand a word I said.”

After years of speech therapy and experimental surgery at Duke University Hospital, Sumner started in broadcasting as a disc jockey at the age of 15 in his hometown of Wallace. He then worked in television and radio in Wilmington and at WATA radio station in Boone. As a student at Appalachian, he was a charter member of WASU and the fourth person on the air when the station began broadcasting in 1972.

“Over the years, radio has remained a passion of mine, and my business degree from ASU helped me to fulfill a dream of owning my own radio station when I bought WBAG in Burlington in 1993,” Sumner explained.

The radio complex at Appalachian will contain offices for student workers and the station manager, two production suites and a waiting area. It will have a classroom wired for audio/video production, a computer lab and four audio labs. It also will be the home of the Kellar Radio Farm System Institute, a 10-day program for training and recruiting future radio broadcasters.

“I got very excited when I learned about the proposed new broadcasting complex at ASU,” said Sumner. “My wife, Karen, and I could envision the radio station broadcast studio on the first floor with a large window making WASU a very visible part of the community, and decided we wanted to help make it happen.”

Sumner hopes that his experience and love of broadcasting will leave a legacy for many more Appalachian students.

“My broadcasting experience has been invaluable to me in many ways,” Sumner explained. “Overcoming my speech impediment and being on the air gave me the confidence that I could do anything that I am passionate about and I worked hard enough at it, and I have been guided by this philosophy throughout my business career. Broadcasting clearly made a difference in my life, and my hope is that the opportunities to be involved in broadcasting through ASU’s new broadcasting complex will also make a positive difference in the lives of the students.”

For more information about the Beasley Broadcasting Complex, visit www.asucom.appstate.edu.

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