Sienna Jackson / Special to the Roundup
The air was chilly in the small room even as the unforgiving Monday sun shone overhead and people crowded around to watch the flurry of activity as the new student run radio station, KPCRadio, prepared for its first live broadcast at noon.
Students and faculty involved with the Media Arts Department at Pierce College milled about in Village 8213 to witness the christening of the program, exchanging congratulatory hugs and excited smiles.
While this is the college’s first online radio station, it had a thriving station back in the 60s and 70s, before being disbanded sometime in the 80s.
The motto of the new internet-broadcast station is, according to its creators, to put “community first.”
“There’s all this art, there’s all this culture that doesn’t get broadcast,” said Natalie Yemenidjian, the student program director for KPCRadio and former editor of both the campus paper and magazine.
“There’s a really big undertow of it [art and culture] in the valley.”
Yemenidjian hopes for the station to become a part of the sprawling and diverse San Fernando Valley community, both in promoting the local artistic scene as well as covering the hard-hitting news that will affect the community at large.
“We want to be your community billboard,” said Yemenidjian, who then went off to the studio to prepare for the opening segment of the show, an investigative piece examining the legality of the Pierce College Council (PCC) keeping their meetings closed from the public.
KPCR’s format is planned to be an eclectic mix of art and politics, music and discussion. As the people in room 8213 listened to the show through speakers at the reception, in adjacent room 8212, band equipment crowded the floor as the musical group, Culprit, prepared for an interview and live performance.
Courtney Coles, 20, is the music director for KPCR—she discovered the San Fernando group at a show two years ago at the Cobalt Café in Canoga Park.
“I don’t try to go and look for music, when I see a band I like I follow them,” Coles said, before getting caught up in friendly conversation with one of the band members.
Amara Aguilar, assistant professor of multimedia at Pierce, is excited about the new station: “I think it’s a great opportunity for students to learn,” said Aguilar.
“We’re filling a niche in this community… we don’t have monetary pressure, we don’t worry about the bottom line,” she said.
Participation in the radio station is open to students; Broadcasting 10, the course number for the radio station, offers an opportunity for Pierce students to get hands on experience with producing their own media.
Plans for the station began in 2009, according to Yemenidjian, when members of the Media Arts Department and other Pierce College officials began discussions on creating a station. “They wanted an outlet for the students,” said Yemenidjian.
The facilities in Village 8200 were paid by a $99,000 CTE Industry Collaborative Grant, which paid for the renovation of Village 8200.
“I’ve gotten experience here that you can’t get at a four year university,” Yemenidjian said of the station. “We’re trying to do everything we’ve learned to do.”
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(Photo Courtsey of Jill Conelley)
(Photo Courtsey of Amara Aguilar)