Photo by Stanley Sigalov '13.
Radio at Colorado College is on the move as The SOCC, the student-run station, relocated to new quarters and KRCC, the college’s NPR member station, takes to the streets.
The SOCC (the Sound of Colorado College), which first went on the air in spring 2008 from its birthplace in the basement of KRCC, moved to what was formerly the piano room on the first floor of Loomis Hall. Matt Baer ’10, SOCC general manager, says the new location gives the station more visibility. “We have a much greater connection to the campus being based in Loomis,” he says. “It’s great, because students are walking by all the time, asking questions, interested in what’s going on.”
The move took place in August, so that the station would be up and running when school started.
Thanks to its 60-plus deejays, The SOCC has live programming from noon to 2 a.m. Monday-Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday. The station predominately plays music, but offers the opportunity for other CC work to be acknowledged: for example, the debate team hosts an ongoing show, and last year a biology class gave a radio presentation on HIV/AIDS.
For some, the sounds of a student-run radio station will bring back the memory of the earliest days of KRCC when the 5-watt station started by Professor Woodson “Chief” Tyree was staffed by students.
Kathy and Sal Bizzarro
Meanwhile, across campus, KRCC partnered with StoryCorps, a national oral history project that documents the stories of Americans. StoryCorps was in Colorado Springs from Sept. 24 to Oct. 17 with its MobileBooth, an Airstream trailer outfitted with a recording studio. The first subjects in the booth were Sal Bizzarro P’08, CC Spanish professor, and his wife, Kathy Bizzarro P’08, an adjunct Spanish instructor. Kathy Bizzarro interviewed her husband about his coming to America in 1954 – and requested a few of his favorite Italian recipes.
The MobileBooth provided inspiration for KRCC’s General Manager Delaney Utterback ’98: The station recently received a donated truck and trailer, and now is outfitting its own recording booth in the trailer to collect Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico stories.
The SOCC can be heard at 91.5 FM HD3 and on the Internet at www.theSOCC.org. (Baer was able to hear the station while spending a semester abroad in Beijing, China.)
KRCC broadcasts three channels of content in Southern Colorado at 91.5FM/HD, HD2, and HD3. KRCC also can be heard on an iPhone or iPod Touch. Just go to the app store and search for KRCC to grab the free app. You can listen to KRCC online, as well; visit www.krcc.org/listen to find out how.
One Response to Radio Making Waves at CC
I, ’49, Wes Bradley, and John Reeds were among the students who helped KRCC’s founder, Woodson Tyree, put out programs. Some of these programs were put on at the KRDO studio. One in which we participated was a Saturday night open house, Emceed by professional Jay Cook. Beamed to the car radios of folks out taking a drive, they were invited in for coffee and donuts, and whatever.
Doc Stabler, the fabled CC biology prof. called in and said he would like to come and bring in a few of his specimens for an absolute worldwide radio first.
He arrived in his pickup with a few large crates containing poisonous snakes. The room was full of anxious people
as he fished out a fat rattler and put it up to a microphone where it gave a splendid premier performance, getting a big thumbs up from the engineer in the control room. We thought it was an alltime first.
A second crate containing a large cottonmouth mocassin was supported by two folding chairs. John Reeds was helping with the announcing moved toward the Mike, and accidently hooked his foot on one of the chairs, knocking the prop out from under the crate, which fell to the floor, opening the lid.
The snake slithered out as people ran for the door, their crys transmitted through the air to Saturday night live listeners. John, who was next to the serpent, turned white, and then other colors, but moved deftly aside as Doc Stabler deftly collared the frightened animal with his snakestick. These were pioneer times, and we put on programs with a lot of improvisation.
Henry C. Klingman ‘499
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