 | ||||
| PRODUCTS | COMPANIES | EDITORIAL | CLASSIFIEDS | |
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
A Small College With A NexGen Pedigree In Radio Broadcasting | |
| ||
|
||
| ||
|
||
| ||
|
||
| ||
|
Susan Edens doesn’t look particularly menacing. She is unfailingly polite, and quick with
conversation and a smile. But when it comes to convincing students to choose a pedigree
degree in the mass communications program at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville,
Arkansas, over other more well-known university broadcasting programs, Edens’s placid
exterior masks a zealous streak. With a wink and unabashed enthusiasm she touts both the hands-on radio broadcasting program on KUOZ, the college-owned campus station; and the University of the Ozarks, founded in 1834, the oldest institution of higher education in the Arkansas/Oklahoma territory. The university was ranked as a “Top Tier” private university in the south by a national magazine. “Other college radio programs and stations may be bigger and louder, but ours is studentfriendly and student-run. Sure, others have been on the air longer, often with a full-time professional staff, while KUOZ serves students as an educational tool and career-enhancing vehicle,” said Edens, instructor, KUOZ program director, and director of video & media services at the university. The way Edens sees it, many college radio stations do the same thing over and over again, while KUOZ, a low-power FM station less than a year old, is constantly innovating. Case in point. “When we began planning three years ago for a radio station that would serve not only the students but also the general community, we knew a fundamental thing would have to happen: we would absolutely have to buy a reliable, user-friendly, computer system to ‘run’ the station,” Edens stated. “I began doing research on several companies specializing in automation software before my investigation led me to Prophet Systems. To reaffirm my findings, I called a former colleague who is now program director for professional radio stations in Arkansas. I said I was considering Prophet, but needed to know more about its know-how and customer service (after the sale),” she said. Her friend quickly recommended Prophet’s integrity, systems technology, and capable support staff. Edens then called Prophet Systems Innovations (PSi), of Ogallala, Nebraska, a leading supplier of digital audio software and systems to the broadcast industry. She reached Matt Harestad, “who did what I needed him to do,” she added. “He listened. He answered questions in a language I could understand. He made me feel like our project was the most important matter on his desk.” In her initial contacts with Prophet Systems, Edens clearly stated the university’s mission— “offer the best education possible for each student”—the prerequisites of a degree in the mass communications program—“to be proficient in technologies as well as content-oriented tasks”—and the importance of the radio study program—“a hands-on experience with students learning every facet of broadcasting.” The University of the Ozarks ordered NexGen Digital Broadcasting, a sophisticated next generation control center which schedules, stores and processes all audio data for automatic radio programming; and MusicGen, which integrates directly to a radio station’s digital information system and allows the creation of the most complex music scheduling. The next step was equipment installation followed by a two-day on campus seminar by Prophet’s Diane Crawford, who instructed Edens and several advanced program students in how to use the system and helped customize NexGen to suit programming and operational needs at KUOZ. “Tech support at Prophet is extremely responsive, even assisting on technical problems created on our end as we learn the functions of NexGen,” Edens said. “I really appreciate all the features, especially dial-in, which allows technicians via modem to enter our system.” Nineteen students are currently enrolled in the radio broadcasting program, and thirteen are already “hands-on” and on the air. They were trained to voice-track in about one hour, and Edens can pull up the day’s voice-tracks to monitor content and sound before leaving the campus in the evenings. “As an instructor and manager who must oversee two broadcast entities each day, having NexGen is significant,” she added. “Couldn’t, shouldn’t and wouldn’t do without it. “When attracting prospective students to the University of the Ozarks, one of the major pluses we have, as a program, is that we truly use the same equipment professional broadcasters are using,” according to Edens. “Students are trained in all aspects of radio, from programming to promotion and from production to traffic.” The university’s KUOZ-FM station serves students as both an educational tool and entertainment vehicle. The station itself serves the general community by providing formats not available commercially in the area, offering music programming in jazz, blues and bluegrass as well as news and community service announcements. At the end of the day, Susan Edens leads a double life. By day, she is a professional educator and an ardent believer in the student radio program at the university. In the evenings and weekends, Edens becomes an enthusiastic booster of Prophet Systems. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
