“MTSU On the Record,” the 30-minute weekly public affairs program that aired since 1997 on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5, has bid farewell following the recent retirement of its longtime host and producer Gina K. Logue, a staff member in the university’s Office of News and Media Relations.

This final show orIginally aired Jan. 22, 2023, on WMOT-FM and www.wmot.org. You can hear it in its entirety via the Soundcloud link below.

ThIs final edition of the award-winning program features an interview with Logue, whose first name is pronounced “JIN-uh,” by another recent MTSU retiree, WMOT News Director Mike Osborne.

In it, Logue shares her reflections about the program; it also features a series of farewell tributes from MTSU faculty and staff.

“In childhood, my father made it a habit to watch the national evening news every night. … He also watched a lot of college and pro football on the weekends, and I watched it with him,” says Logue in explaining how she came to a career in radio.

“You didn’t see female sportscasters on televisions at that time. They weren’t taken very seriously. … So I didn’t have any role models.”

Logue, who earned her MTSU bachelor’s degree in political science, adds that 1968 saw a great deal of social and political upheaval with the assassinations of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy and widespread protests of the Vietnam War, among other things.

She noticed that more women were covering politics, creating more jounalism role models, and shifted her ambitions from becoming a play-by-play sports broadcaster to the political realm.

“I veered off from the sports direction, but I knew that I wanted to do something that involved words and speaking,” says Logue, who worked at MTSU for 22 years, hosted the program for almost two decades and also brought another 20 years of extensive radio broadcast experience to the university.

She’s pleased with the long run of “MTSU On the Record,” which aired twice weekly and featured a wide variety of topics and interviews involving faculty, staff, students, alumni, guest speakers and lecturers and university partners. Logue eventually handled all aspects of the program from guest selection, topics and books to postproduction.

The Tennessee College Public Relations Association and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, or CASE, among other organizations, have recognized the program for its quality over the years.

“I think it (the program) attempted … to show sides of MTSU that were perhaps in the nooks and crannies and were not part of public knowledge,” says Logue, who accepted her Master of Arts in Liberal Arts at the university’s fall 2022 commencement in December.

“I wanted human aspects; I wanted people to talk about their research projects; I wanted to read academic papers.”

University College Dean John Vile was among more than a dozen faculty and staff members providing audio farewell tributes for this final show.

A political scientist, constitutional scholar and author of multiple books, Vile recalls the many interviews he had with Logue and the level of preparation she always brought to the microphone.

“One of the things I know about Gina is if you send her a book, she’s always prepared. I don’t know that she reads every word, but it sounds when she does the interview as though she does,” he says. “She will usually throw in one question that will have you scratch your head and wonder what to say. But she’s always well prepared and I’ve always enjoyed it. Fond farewell.”

Logue also wrote, voiced and produced the 60-second “Middle in a Minute” vignettes heard throughout WMOT programming.

To hear previous “MTSU On the Record” programs or “Middle in a Minute” segments, visit the searchable “Audio Clips” archives at www.mtsunews.com.

WMOT is the region’s only 100,000-watt Americana music channel. Broadcasting from the Center for Innovation in Media inside MTSU’s Bragg Media and Entertainment Building, WMOT serves its over-the-air audience in 41 of Tennessee’s 95 counties.

MTSU’s Office of News and Media Relations is part of the Division of Marketing and Communications led by Vice President Andrew Oppmann.

— Jimmy Hart (Jimmy.Hart@mtsu.edu)