Old to the New...radio to podcasting

It's a sign of the times. Old school radio is dying. Plain and simple. While traditional over-the-air traditional radio still exists, much of the power of transmission and who controls the content, has seen a major shift to the listener. 

When I started in radio

I started in radio in 1988, volunteering my time at WTIG 990 AM in Massillon. I went in Sunday at 6 a.m. and turned on the power to the transmitter and station and played country music for 90 minutes before switching over to back-to-back church broadcasts. It was thrilling. The only interaction I had was with my Mom who would call me every now and then to make a request. Mom was the best!

Fading interest in radio 

Fast forward 30 years to Hiram College. Interest in radio was fading away as students were not using the radio station so much in the basement of the Kennedy Center. The space that was the radio station studio had fallen on hard times. Equipment was broken and Hiram College's IT Director Matthew McKenna and I decided to shut it down, rip everything out, and restart it as a podcast studio. 

The old studio at Hiram College

Here's what the old studio looked like.

We tried to sell the records and equipment and had no takers. Everything went to the trash. After a lot of help from the Hiram College Physical Plant, the IT Department, Marc Freeman, and others, the space was cleared. 

How academic restructuring played a role

In the spring of 2018, our Dean Judy Muyskens announced a number of new academic majors and programs that we as faculty at Hiram College should come together on and bring to fruition. One of those new majors was sport management. Sports psychology professor Andrew White, Integrated Exercise Science professor Mike Rebold and I came together to research sport management programs and went to work assembling curriculum. Part of our work included creating a wish list of things we would need funding for. I proposed we included funding for the podcast studio so athletics could use it. Funding was approved and work got going on transforming the space from what you see above to what you see below.

The new podcast studio

Tuesday, February 26, we had our big reveal of the new studio space. We had 16 students show. It was awesome to hear the collective "oooohhhs" and "ahhhhh" when I removed paneling from the window so they could see the studio. And right away, I showed them the equipment. They opened up GarageBand and started playing around and recording. It was a blast to hear the students discuss ideas about how to share content and get shows going. I can't wait to see where things go from here. 

If you have a show idea for a podcast, feel free to share it with me in the comments on this.