From the perspective of a station manager
Photo credit: Amy Soba ’21
The fall semester has come to an end and what a crazy one it’s been. I remember walking out of the station in March thinking “I’ll be back soon. It’s just spring break.” Boy, was I wrong. One week turned into two weeks and then a month, and then a whole summer which blurred into a remote fall semester. I was definitely let down. I thought, “Wow, I’m a senior and one of my last memories of the station will be sitting on the couch watching Barry – wild.” Little did I know that radio could continue on from the oh-so-familiar four walls of my room. I called a meeting with the other station manager, our faculty advisor, and our technical engineer. We were able to brainstorm four pretty good ideas which we then pitched to the rest of exec and the DJs. One of the ideas – prerecorded shows – really caught on. We ended up with about 24 active student and community DJs, which I think is pretty amazing. I was able to record a show on Friday night and have it air on Tuesday, which was convenient.. The prerecorded format also gave me space to try talking more “on-air” and add in more fun facts about the artists or personal anecdotes about a particular song. Our exec board also hosted a few Zoom hangouts, game nights, and even pulled off our semesterly 24 Hour Live event.
The spring semester offers a whole new set of challenges with Dickinson’s plan to flip the on-campus student body halfway through the semester. I’m hoping to have more live DJs in the station with proper cleaning protocols in place along with continuing remote radio for those who are at home. In an ideal world, I would love to see a socially distanced Live on Britton once it warms up in April/May. With 2020 almost over, I’m definitely ready to look towards the new year. I’m sure I won’t wake up January 1st, 2021 with all of my problems solved, but if this year has shown me anything, it’s that people can be really creative in coming up with ways to keep moving forwards. All in all, I’m very impressed with how radio has fared and I’m curious to see what next semester holds.
by Amy Soba ’21
