More than just the radio

by Mikayla Davis | Staff Writer

As students made their way into the HUB on April 4, music, candy and a variety of student-led radio programs encouraged students to learn, engage, and tune in to Whitworth.FM radio.

Sophomores Erin Mcleod and Cambria Pilger were two of the radio hosts promoting their show, “Date At 8,” which airs every Thursday at 8 p.m.. The hosts start their program with a “friend date.” Two guest students, who are also strangers, are given the chance to converse and get to know one another for the first time.

“Emphasize the ‘friend’,” Mcleod said. “Friend date.”

“Just by the title it sounds romantic,” added Pilger. “But that is not our intention.”

The hosts provide their guests with four to six questions to help get them started, “but we encourage them to talk about whatever they want,” said Pilger.

In the latter half, Mcleod and Pilger discuss dating, relationships and how they see the two functioning within Whitworth’s own culture.

A few booths down from Mcleod and Pilger was a very different program called “Monday Mood.” The show, hosted by freshman Jaymilee Makin, is dedicated to talking about mental illnesses and the misconceptions surrounding them.

While psychology is not Makin’s major, the program’s topic is one of special interest to her.

“I was fed up with the idea that mental illness makes a weakness and that we couldn’t talk about them,” Makin said.

In a coming segment, Makin looks forward to discussing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and what it really means to have OCD.

Sitting just to the left of Makin and bringing music to the mix of radio shows was freshman Kathryn Price. Her program, “The Color of Sound,” interacts with musicians and filmscores alike. Price begins with an interview between herself and a guest musician or artist.

“I ask them what they are passionate about, specifically related to music,” said Price.

Afterwards, Price breaks down film scores, often editing clips of her favorite themes in order to further discuss them on air.

“I’ve done ‘Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,’ ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ and ‘The Great Wall,’” Price said.

Like Price, many of the Whitworth.FM radio show hosts have taken one of their personal interests and developed a program to both share with and involve the Whitworth community.

Other programs students can listen in on include the discussion of media and pop-culture, sharing of music from the Midwest, sports coverage, and on-the-spot topics.

For more information, contact gm.whitworth.fm@gmail.com or listen online at https://www.whitworth.fm.