By Angelina Herrera
English teacher Kate Bryan teaches CP Radio in a way that allows students to be creative with the work they put out for the Granada Hills community. CP Radio conducts the radio station titled The Hills that plays music picked by the students.
The station began as an after school club, however, after being a club for a year Bryan created a class that allowed students more possibilities to learn the ins and outs of producing a radio station.
“We started a club as a way to get something started right away. After about a year, I realized that in order for the radio station to actually work, it would need to be a class, like journalism or yearbook. So I proposed a new course for this purpose and now we have CP Radio,” Bryan said.
The Hills radio station teaches students to develop communication skills and to become creative thinkers while running the station. Years of students have enjoyed producing the radio station and its content. Students find fulfillment in knowing that students on campus and people in the community can hear their work.
“It’s also so cool that the work we do in class actually becomes something that many people can listen to,” Bryan said.
Junior Sam Mendizabal has really enjoyed his experience with the radio station this year, especially the leadership opportunities it affords him.
“Once I heard that there was a class for radio, I became interested in how the radio station works and what it was all about and what makes it fun for people to hear,” Mendizabal said.
Being a part of a functioning and live streaming radio station comes with many responsibilities. Leaders in the class work to keep everyone in check by making schedules and checking in with classmates, and as well as actually producing the radio station.
The station truly is student-centered. All of the content that you hear on This Hills is picked by the students and then aired with Bryan’s approval.
As with any class or sport, there are some setbacks that make it difficult to run the station, however.
“Mostly it is just logistics, like working as a team over distance learning and finding affordable options to record and edit audio to air on the radio station,” Bryan said.
Many students in the class are new to the radio as well as there are no prerequisites necessary to take the class. Students are therefore learning the process of how to run a radio station at the same time as the station is being produced.
There is so much more to CP radio than just playing music on air, however. The class allows for students to develop interests in other career fields like communications and media.
“Learning how is part of the fun of the class. Since there aren’t many communication-based media classes on campus, I wanted to create a course for students to learn skills that would help with careers in media,“ Bryan said.
You can find The Hills radio station on live365.com where you can listen to music and any other content 24/7.
The Plaid Press 