Contact: Maridith Geuder
Mississippi State and Mississippi," he said.
Ellis said distant listeners have responded from such diverse cities as Denver, San Jose, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Boston, and Salt Lake City. He's even heard from England, Korea, Canada, Germany, and Africa.
"This all started when a listener in Jacksonville, Fla., wrote to say that he's never been to Starkville but loves our music," Ellis said. "For three weeks after that, we asked listeners to e-mail from where they were listening. We then mounted a map on the wall and began marking the locations with pins."
"One listener at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth said her entire residence hall listens to WMSV," Ellis said.
The commercial-free station's daily format features artists such as Eric Clapton, Counting Crows and Coldplay. Weekend jazz and blues programming also are "very, very popular," Ellis added.
"We clearly are offering an alternative not being provided by many local stations in the country," he observed.
In his e-mail, the Jacksonville, Fla., listener called WMSV "one of the better college radio stations on the Internet." He praised the "variety of music, diversity of information and format."
Each distant listener who wrote the station was mailed a WMSV bumper sticker. Responders from the farthest location also received a WMSV T-shirt, with winners tuning in from Santa Clara, Calif., and Capetown, South Africa.
"And we're still getting e-mails," Ellis said.
To receive WMSV broadcasting on the Internet and list your location, visit http://www.wmsv.msstate.edu/.