From a small sound booth in the college, students are able to reach across the world with the radio station ECAV.
From classic rock to house, ECAV allows their DJs to make the shows they want. Michaela Fatino, station manager, loves that aspect of ECAV.
“Probably my favorite part about [ECAV] is just the variety. I’m one of those people who don’t like to sit still, and I don’t like doing the same thing every day,” Fatino said. “The thing about broadcasting is that it’s always different. There’s always something something new that you’re doing, and you never do the same thing twice because there’s always new information or new stories or new equipment or programs to use. It’s always new and there’s always something fresh that you can learn.”
Each week, ECAV has lots of freedom to create the shows they want.
“We have some structure with the shows. We have to have four 11-minute segments and we have breaks in between, so there’s a structure of how people have to do shows, but they really have freedom about what they want to talk about,” Fatino said. “Every show is completely different. They get to decide what content goes into their show, and I don’t have any control over that. We still follow FCC guidelines, but other than that, they kind of get free reign, and I think that does help ECAV because it gives them the freedom to talk about things that are interesting and the things that people will actually listen to.”
Fatino fell in love with this medium while studying at the college.
“I actually was not interested in radio at all when I first started at JCCC,” Fatino said. “I was just taking general education classes [and] trying to figure out what I wanted to do because I had no clue. I joined Corbin Crable’s Mass Media and Society class … I did really well in the broadcasting section and I thought it was a lot of fun, so Corbin advised me to take a broadcasting class … I took Intro to Broadcasting, and I just kind of fell in love with it.”
This love motivated Fatino to join ECAV. She loves working for the station, and it has given her a new appreciation for radio.
Branden Davidson, who hosts The Fozzie Show, loves the experience of creating a show.
“It’s been a great outlet. Amongst my friends and everybody, I was the one always putting together the mix tapes and the mix CDs and stuff like that. Being able to have another platform like a radio station or radio show to just share my era of music with people is just awesome.”
ECAV is available online for free at blogs.jccc.edu/ecavradio.
Photo courtesy of Michaela Hines and the ECAV Radio Station