WRST-FM at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh will provide live, play-by-play action of some home contests of the Oshkosh Giants amateur baseball team.  The broadcasts kicked off with a doubleheader June 14 on 90.3 FM and at www.wrst.org.

The Giants are part of the Wisconsin State Baseball League and play their home games at E.J. Schneider Field in Oshkosh. The broadcast schedule is below.

WRST is happy to add the Giants’ games to its sports offerings, said Randall Davidson, director of radio services at UW Oshkosh.

“Sports programming is an important part of the WRST mission, and I’m pleased the student managers at the station took the initiative to explore this possibility,” he said, adding that WRST student sportscasters are excited to add these broadcasts to their resumes.

In its 43 years of on the air, WRST has offered a variety of sports broadcasts to its listeners. In 2008-2009, the station offered UWO football, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, men’s baseball and women’s softball. The station began offering Neenah High School hockey this year in part to allow students the opportunity to do hockey play-by-play.

WRST also carried some contests of the Appleton-based Fox City Foxz women’s flat-track roller derby team. The station is believed to be the only full-power FM outlet in the U.S. to provide live play-by-play coverage of this sport.

In recent years, the station broadcast Titan swimming and wrestling contests and carried local high school basketball games and games of the Wisconsin Flyers, a team in the Continental Basketball Association.

WRST’s sports coverage recently was honored with several awards this academic year. The six-state Northwest Broadcast News Association gave WRST its award of merit in the sports play-by-play category for a broadcast of the UWO women’s volleyball tournament appearance in the NCAAss “Elite Eight” from Bloomington, Ill.  The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference also honored WRST with its Tom Butler Award for outstanding service to the conference, marking the first time the award went to the efforts of an entire station rather than to the work of an individual sports journalist.

Oshkosh Giants Broadcast Schedule on WRST

• June 14 — 1 and 3:30 p.m. (vs. Lombard Orioles, doubleheader)
• June 23 — 7:30 p.m. (vs. Sheboygan A’s)
• June 24 — 7:30 p.m. (vs. Manitowoc Bandits)
• July 5 — noon and 2:30 p.m. (vs. Janesville Aces, doubleheader)
• July 14 — 7:30 p.m. (vs. Howards Grove River Dogs)
• July 21 — 7:30 p.m. (vs. Green Bay Storm)
• July 29 — 7:30 p.m. (vs. Manitowoc Bandits)
• Aug. 2 — 1 and 3:30 p.m. (vs. Kenosha Kings, doubleheader)