Loyola Internet Radio got one step closer to hitting the airwaves Tuesday as the Student Government Association voted unanimously to charter the organization during the weekly SGA meeting.
Radio organization president Matthew Johnson, communications junior, told SGA that the station would allow communications students to practice what they have obtained from classes and would allow all majors to broadcast music and create radio programming. He also announced that the station would have guest speakers on air and a student forum where students can voice their opinions live.
The station will be located in the basement of the Danna Center, in office space behind the Wolf Den. Johnson said that the group is waiting on an ethernet connection to be installed in the space and is trying to have the rest of the station’s equipment delivered. The station will work with a mixing board, a PC and several microphones.
Johnson said the shows will be picked up by the microphones and that it will be compressed into a wav file, which a company will broadcast over the Internet.
Johnson said he expects the first broadcast to go on air in two to three weeks.
Johnson said the group is working with the university to have a link to the radio station placed on the school’s Web site. People will be able to access the radio station directly on the Web at www.loyolaradio.com.
The station will have five genres: campus issues, general news, talent, music and sports. He said that each genre has a representative and that these representatives will get together weekly to set up the programming schedule for the week.
There will be some constants from week to week, Johnson said. Sports will have a first priority, and all games will always be covered, he said. Johnson also said that campus issues always will have time during the window and that there will always be news in the mornings.
Johnson said he feels that Loyola Internet Radio’s birth is just a first step.
“We had a vision and we have big plans for it and we definitely don’t want to stop at getting the charter. We want to be a big part of this university. We hope we can get all of the cooperation from the university that we can get. The rest is up to us.”
Johnson said that the group will attempt to be financially self-sufficient by collecting dues from the members. He said that because there is such a large number of interested students, the dues should be relatively low.
Johnson said that he thinks the Loyola group is heading down a new path compared to other universities. He said many schools broadcast their FM stations over the Internet “but as far as we know we’re the first university to start an Internet radio station in the hopes of getting a real radio station.”
“We like the challenge,” Johnson said. “It’s a rush.”
Also during the meeting:
• Anna Hall, music business senior and SGA president, thanked everyone who helped and attended the many events during Loyola week. She said that the week proved to be very successful.
• Percy Marchand, management junior and SGA vice president, announced that busses will begin picking students up tonight at 8:30 p.m. for Loup Garou.
• Nicholas Poché, drama/ communications senior, said that he is still working on the SafeRide Program. He said that the university will have a definite decision on the subject by Oct. 31. Poche said that Loyola may try to start its own version of the SafeRide Program if Tulane University is not willing to add Loyola to the program.
• Crystal Guidry, political science sophomore, expressed interest in forming a commuter committee.
• Guidry also described the SGA forum that will be held in next month to inform students about who and what the Student Government Association is.
• Bobby Hjortsberg, psychology junior, encouraged the SGA committee to get students involved in voting for a plus or minus in grades.
• SGA announced that there will be a Freshmen Council on Nov. 7 at 12:30 p.m. in the Wolf Den.
