Category

Communication
Technology

Submitted By

Iris Berkeley, iris.berkeley@colorado.edu, General Manager, KVCU Radio 1190

Project Team

Iris Berkeley, iris.berkeley@colorado.edu, General Manager, KVCU Radio 1190
Eric Scace, eric.scace@colorado.edu, Chief Engineer

Project Description

KVCU Radio 1190, CU Boulder's student radio station, suffered a failure of our 10+-year-old radio automation system last October. We used the failure as a quick-turnaround opportunity to replace it with a modern system that enables us to run 24/7 when there is no DJ in the studio, as well as expand our service offering to include CU events announcements and revenue-generating underwriting scheduling, in addition to generating a significant time savings for our student employees.

Project Efficiency 

Installing this new system has enabled our general manager and student employees to rapidly, flexibly schedule music, news, underwriting and promotional programming in advance from any computer at any time — in the past, not only were these functions extremely limited, but needed to be done from within our physical studio location.

Project Inspiration 

Both Eric and Iris have multiple years' experience in community and public radio, and were able to speak to a number of local and regional stations about their experience in radio automation — both in terms of what options were first-in-class, but also which were in regular use in the industry, enabling our students to gain relevant professional experience.

What Makes You Happiest about this Project?

From Iris: Just this morning I was able to log in from my home office and schedule a show from a student who's broken her leg and has to record her shows at home (something we couldn't do at all before!); load in a promotion for a new podcast partnership we're launching with the Center for African & African American Studies, and get it scheduled in advance of their first airing later this week; add a few new-release music tracks to keep our automation fresh; and all without my coffee getting cold. What a tremendous efficiency boost!