Led by general manager and senior Jordan Runk, Whitworth’s radio station Whitworth.FM offers shows of all genres throughout the week. A member of Whitworth.FM since his freshman year, Runk has a vision for where he would like the station go in the future.

“There’s going to be more people recording, doing promotions for other events, talking to people about those events, advertising Whitworth events,” Runk said. “I want to take apart what it used to be, and kind of build off of that.”

One way that Runk is implementing change at Whitworth.FM is by decreasing his class load this semester and putting more time and focus into equipping students to create high-quality content for their shows.

There are eight shows this year, ranging from rap, electronic, indie and even European music. Runk encourages the students to get creative with their show names and that is apparent, with monikers such as “The Transient” and “Intrepid Grooves.”

Runk is passionate about the success of Whitworth.FM, and this year aims to expand its audience with the help of three exchange students, Runk said.

Seniors Emma De Cocker, Eva Arochena Garcia and Sara Laguna Garcia are international students at Whitworth this year. De Cocker is from Belgium and Arochena Garcia and Laguna Garcia are both from Spain. Those women have teamed up to bring the sounds of their cultures to the ears of Whitworth students.

Every Thursday night at 9 p.m., tune in to Whitworth.FM for “Euro Sound,” which highlights the best independent European music from Belgium, Spain and other countries all over the continent. Arochena Garcia and De Cocker both have past experience in radio, giving the show some serious potential.

“We have a radio station at our school, but I mostly made news pieces for it,” De Cocker said. “So I would like to discover more about the actual radio making and the whole show and playing the music.”

While De Cocker has experience with college radio, Arochena Garcia hosted a show for a community radio station in her home town.

Arochena Garcia hopes to be able to use her past experience to create new, exciting ideas for “Euro Sound” as the year progresses, she said. Despite their past experience with radio, the three hosts have still had to overcome challenges in establishing their show.

“The biggest challenge for me is to play music that is appropriate,” De Cocker said. “Belgian artists sing in English most of the time, and they don’t get censored, so…we are trying to get that figured out the best we can.”

For Laguna Garcia, her university in Spain did not offer a radio class, but her goal is to use her experience at Whitworth to change that.

“I suggested it once and my university didn’t want to add a radio station,” Laguna Garcia said. “I hope to be able to take this experience back home and use it to create a better platform to propose a radio station.”

For De Cocker, Arochena Garcia and Laguna Garcia, Whitworth.FM provides an opportunity to get involved on campus and to become a part of student life at their new university.

Contact Max Carter at [email protected]