KCOD Celebrates Great First Year “On Air”

By COD Instructor and KCOD Faculty Advisor Laurilie Jackson

Faculty, staff and students gathered in the KCOD production room on March 27 with balloons, food, cake and a roomful of enthusiasm to celebrate College of the Desert radio station KCOD’s very first and incredibly successful year.

KCOD has a lot to celebrate. The biggest success of the year came when the station received a large donation from American pianist, composer and radio broadcaster John Tesh at an Intercollegiate Broadcasting Service (IBS) Conference in Los Angeles. Tesh was one of the panelists and agreed to donate a new industry standard Mackie sound board, 2 imac computers, a microphone and a one year subscription to the livestreaming service IBS Backbone.

This recent donation is taking KCOD to another level of digital broadcasting and is helping students keep up with industry standards. KCOD staff and DJs can now create multimedia content, schedule automated programs, conduct live shows, cover remote events, and stream non-stop music and programs over the Internet 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

KCOD programming ranges from unique music genres, news, sports, arts and entertainment, cultural commentary, comedy and can be heard on itunes, the mobile app TuneIn Radio and KCODradio.org.

Students recently started video producing KCOD News this semester. You will soon be able to watch the latest college news and announcements on the station’s website. Radio and television students report, write, produce and present these brief, video newscasts. It’s a wonderful opportunity for students to work on their on-camera skills.

Two KCOD staff members and faculty advisor, Laurilie Jackson attended the IBS Conference in New York City this past spring. They were able to learn more about the “how to’s” of operating a campus radio station. They listened to industry professionals about advertising, sponsorships, new livestreaming techniques, programming and ways they can reach out to the entire college and surrounding community.

The KCOD studio, production room and RTV classes located in the Diesel Mechanics building will be moving to the new classroom building on campus this summer.  In addition, a new Radio Production course was recently approved this spring and will be offered in the Fall of 2012.

All of this year’s successes will help KCOD build a stronger staff, provide a more diverse line-up of student produced shows and have a more visible presence on campus and the community.

For more information about KCOD log onto KCODradio.org.