Cynthia Todd, MavRadio News Director
MavRadio is about to take part in the Halloween festivities in a big way.
The station’s second annual Haunted Heartland will take place on Oct. 28 from 6-9 p.m. and will feature 11 reporters who will broadcast live throughout the night.
“Last year’s Haunted Heartland was a huge success,” said Ryan Matheny, general manager of MavRadio. “There were several interesting segments and a few scary moments with our reporters, but it was something we wanted to bring back.”
MavRadio staff has been planning this broadcast for weeks and everything is finally coming together for the live event.
Radio II students created each segment and all of the reporters will interact with the broadcast’s hosts, Matthias Jeske and Melissa Ring during the show.
“We have a variety of stories planned that range from haunted houses to mysterious disappearing radio stations to horror films,” Matheny said. “All of our reporters will be live on air after their story plays, and they will be at the location of their story or at another scary location in the metro area.”
Reporters were encouraged to think outside of the box in order to produce the best content possible for Haunted Heartland.
“All of these stories have been well researched and our reporters have done a great job so far,” Matheny said. “You might learn something new about your favorite haunted house or you might figure out why Omaha has a radio station that doesn’t exist.”
Radio students are responsible for all the production in the show, from the introduction to the music beds. Listeners can even expect to hear short stories from former students and possibly an appearance from the Ouija board.
“My guess is that it will make an appearance sometime during the night,” Matheny said. “But you won’t see me anywhere near it.”
MavRadio encourages everyone to listen and experience the broadcast with the reporters and staff.
“We will be active on social media throughout the night, posting pictures and keeping listeners up-to-date with what the reporters are doing,” Matheny said. “Our Radio II students have been working all semester and our staff has put in a ton of work to get organized for this event, so it would be fantastic to have people tune in.”
Haunted Heartland will re-air twice on Halloween night from 6-9 p.m. and 9 p.m.- midnight. The entire broadcast will be available to stream online on Nov. 1.
“I’m confident in all of our reporters and hosts,” Matheny said. “This event will be three hours of fun.”
Haunted Heartland Team
Executive Producer: Jodeane Brownlee
Technical Director and Senior Associate Producer: Ryan Matheny
Associate Producer: Cody Tromler
Production Director: Jordan Stratman
Hosts: Matthias Jeske and Melissa Ring
Programming Director and Social Media Manager: JR Kantor
Production Assistants: Matthew Barros, Dan Downs and Kenneth Vela
Reporters: Layla Ashouri, Kirby Bridges, Dan Downs, Marin Krause, Emily Masters, Sam Murphy, Adam Preister, Jordan Stratman, Kenneth Vela, Aurelie Villard and Jessica Yrkoski
