With 24-hour streaming, COOG Radio, the completely UH student-run online radio station — is becoming a starting point for up-and-coming broadcasters.
Launched in 2011, COOG Radio is UH’s first and only student-run station.
“We are using COOG Radio as a way of letting students develop their voice, promote themselves and really get a feel for what it’s like to work in radio,” said Conner Clifton, COOG Radio director and one of its co-founders. “The students who come in here will get a feel of what it’s like to be a DJ.”
It took two years of planning and brainstorming by Clifton and fellow co-founders Matt Womack and Markley Rogers.
In 2-hour slots, student DJs are able to hone their on-air skills and learn how to properly use equipment.
“It’s an educational tool for all of our DJs,” said senior Sophia Straus, the station’s operations director. “They get exposure to equipment they wouldn’t normally see.
Straus said she is currently in an audio production class and is reading about the various microphones, which she then actually sees once she gets into the station.
“You are working with them, and it’s a completely different experience,” she said, before adding that it’s one thing to read about radio, but it’s a completely new experience to actually learn a craft, while you are streaming live to listeners.
“It’s something you cannot learn in a classroom,” she said.
COOG Radio streams live and around the clock at www.coogradio.com.
