2024-Present:
Station Manager: Justin Harris
2022-2024:
Station Manager: Caitlyn Branine
“At the time I came in as station manager, the station was inactive and offline due to COVID. My advisor and I spent the summer of 2022 rebuilding the radio station from scratch. The station has been rebranded with an alt rock format and a new logo that was hand drawn by UCCS student, Anthony Alvarado. In the morning and afternoon, the station plays music for listeners to enjoy during their workday, with five hours in the evening and two hours at midday of student and staff created content. During my time as manager, UCCS Radio had 13 active podcasts and specialty music shows. Podcasts range from sports and UCCS athletics, to psychological lessons, to horror, to movie reviews, to even advice on how to be successful in college. Specialty music shows range from music history to local bands, to old school rap and hip hop, to EDM, to even random and obscure themes. On school nights after evening programing from 11:00 PM – 2:00 AM, UCCS Radio switches to relaxing downtempo, low-fi, and chill wave to help students relax and study.
Because of the COVID shutdown, to regain awareness and interest, we tabled at events such as club fairs and Clyde’s Kickoff Week. In my time as station manager, we hosted four annual, special UCCS Radio events, such as the annual Battle of the Bands, coffee shops at Clyde’s with live acoustic music, and the UCCS Radio annual spring concert with live music from student bands and a DJ from our EDM show as the opener. We formed partnerships with other clubs and organizations on campus, such as Student Life, Student Government, the Green Action Fund, and even the Bug Club.
In addition to the above activities and programming, we also attended the IBS Radio Conference in New York City. During my time at the station we won Best Online Streaming College Radio Station and I won Best Student Station Manager.
The radio station still operates under the Student Media department with the Scribe and we still receive funding from the Student Media fee in the students’ tuition.”
2018-2020:
Station Manager: Madison Ellis
“Hi! I’m Madison and I was the UCCS Radio Station Manager for 3 years. I had very big shoes to fill when I took on the role, as Kyle Boyle before me had really began the process of making the Radio Station a community-centric, successful student-run entity. When I first came into the position, I was a second semester freshman who had barely been a DJ for a semester. I had barely any experience with sound equipment and no experience running an organization with funding and volunteers, but learned as much as I could as quickly as I could.
At this point in time, UCCS Radio and the Scribe were in the process of campaigning for the Student Media Fee to be enacted. I was able to help campaign for that fee legislature in order to expand the student media budget to better serve the student body’s needs. Once the fee was established, and with the resultant expansion of funding, I restructured the Radio’s organizational chart and added additional paid members to the staff (compared to the singular paid staff member of previous years being the Station Manager), making and filling a new total of 4 new paid positions over the course of 2 years!
We had about 13-15 radio shows each semester (spanning from award-winning sports talk shows and world news shows, to radio dramas and even a variety of music shows) and nearly 20 volunteer members consistently throughout my tenure. We upgraded the music software, began the process of upgrading the website, volunteered at countless events with other organizations on campus, and co-sponsored wonderful musical acts for Concert on the Lawn each year, such as Knox Hamilton, Pandas and People, and Beach Bunny with UCCS Student Life & Leadership.
Our volunteer DJs were nominated for several awards through the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System from 2017-2020, and won one of these awards during this time period. With expanded Media Fee funding, we were able to travel more members to our national student radio conference in New York City each year to learn about how to better provide content to our university’s students, which truly carried over into how our outreach strategies as a station evolved over the years.
At the time when I was station manager, the radio station operated under the new Student Media Department with the Scribe and we received funding from the new Student Media Fee in students’ tuition.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a DJ and Station Manager, and seeing the station go silent for a couple years after I graduated was very saddening. Recently, seeing how much press and well-deserved recognition the new leadership and volunteers are receiving warms my heart, and truly shows that student media will never be silenced! I still rock an I ❤️ College Radio button on my backpack to this day (and will never stop)! Go UCCS Radio!”
2015-2018:
Station Manager: Kyle Boyle
“Between 2015 and 2018, the station focused on several initiatives, with an emphasis on collaborating with other student organizations and clubs. We provided live DJ and emcee services free of charge to dozens of events every year, as well as helping co-host larger events with student clubs. This increased the presence and exposure of UCCS Radio to the larger campus community and helped pave the way for the support and creation of a student media fund.
We also attended the IBS awards conference in New York annually, receiving several nominations and even a few first-place awards for some of our student-led programing, including sports and news-based shows. Under the guidance of our tech-savvy faculty advisor, Ben Sloan, we were also able to make some much-needed upgrades to our small but mighty studio, including new microphones, a soundboard, playlist automation software, and equipment for live shows.
At the time when I was station manager, the radio station still partially operated under IT and we received funding from the Student Government Association.”