It was a busy year. That's putting it lightly. But I couldn't be more proud of the work the WCMU News team produced this year.
It was tough to pick a top-ten list. In fact, as you'll see below, the first three stories, the list doesn't have rankings, are not stories. Instead, I chose either a series of stories we worked on as a team and the live blog we produced during the early days of the ice storm in northern Michigan.
When you're in the rush of meeting deadlines, trying to get people on the phone and making sure your team has the support they need, it can be so easy to forget how many quality stories we produce on a regular basis. The list represents just a tiny fraction of the work our team produced this year.
In 2025, WCMU featured the work of 11 journalism students from Central Michigan University. We also had six full-time staff members contribute stories along side our partners at the Michigan Public Radio Network and Harvest Public Media. We even has a handful of stories make it on to NPR. It was thousands of stories on various platforms, too many to count.
We're excited to be adding a full-time Rural Life & Agriculture Reporter to our staff in early 2026, expanding our partnership with Harvest Public Media. There's already a lot on our plates for 2026. But we're excited to take on the challenge and serve as your local public radio newsroom.
As of Thursday afternoon, over 1,000 utility customers are still in the dark in northern Michigan, according to poweroutage.us. While utility companies are working to restore power, the state is developing a debris cleanup plan, and state-managed trails are closed "indefinitely."
A collection of interviews and stories from the WCMU newsroom on the 50th anniversary of one of the most infamous shipwrecks in Great Lakes history.
Homes were washed away, businesses were destroyed and thousands of lives were turned upside down at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We remember the floods and the people who were impacted.
A school in the eastern UP is holding off on an expansion project to build two new classrooms and welcome 40 new students because of noise pollution from a nearby bitcoin mining farm. Residents are calling for the facility to shut up or shut down and move.
Linda Lee retired from performing at The Bavarian Inn in 2024 but is still performing for seniors in nursing homes and home-bound residents.
Fishing for suckerfish is a long-standing tradition in Omer, the smallest city in Michigan, and a local festival aims to keep that tradition alive.
A father of four and construction worker from Mount Pleasant was fatally hit after the car veered into a construction zone. It's still not clear what caused the accident.
A satirical Facebook post that claimed Saginaw Bay had been renamed to “Bay Bay” went viral earlier this year, and not everyone got the joke. As misinformation, influencer news and AI-generated content blur the lines between fact and fiction, experts say media literacy is more important than ever.
A crowd gathered in Oakwood Cemetery Monday morning to pay respects to a veteran on the 112th anniversary of his death.
The Trout Lake dam in Gladwin County is facing uncertainly as the Michigan Department of Natural Resources recommends its removal. Community members are now advocating to save the lake.
