CBI Station Profile: ACRN at Ohio University

Last Updated on February 28, 2010 by askcbiorg

This is a continuing series of station profiles conducted by Student Representative Caila Brown of the Savannah College of Art and Design. If you would like to be featured in a station profile, please email Caila at cbrown40@student.scad.edu.

In this installment, Caila interviews Jason Robinaugh, General Manager of ACRN at Ohio University.

Station Name: ACRN
Station Location: Athens, Ohio
Institution: Ohio University

Describe the programming on your station.
Primarily indie rock/pop and electropop with strong integration of other underground styles including thrash, hardcore, and noise.

What makes your station unique?
We seek to give our staff a well-rounded media experience, allowing them to coordinate live events and create written and video content for our web site.

How does your station prepare students for post-graduate opportunities?
ACRN has a strong alumni network with whose board we communicate once each month. These ties keep our station’s traditions alive and help students find out about internship and job opportunities all over the country.

How does your station keep students motivated and involved?
Our staff has plenty of opportunities to have fun as a group at our live concerts and dance parties, and the chance to build one’s resume while having so much fun keeps many incoming freshmen around for their entire collegiate careers.

Why do you think collegiate broadcasting is important?
For more than a generation, the spirit of college radio–especially at ACRN–has facilitated lifelong working relationships and friendships. In addition, student-run college radio provides its undergraduate staff with the opportunity to give voice to a hard-working yet often unacknowledged segment of the university population.

How has your station benefited from being a member of CBI?
In October 2009, four of our execs flew to Austin, Texas for NCMC 2009 and came back to Ohio with a slew of new ideas and contacts gathered from other CBI member stations and the professionals who spoke. Opportunities like these have allowed ACRN to more effectively communicate with the nationwide college radio community.

Finally, please share any interesting stories, facts or events your station has had.
ACRN began in 1971 as a network of several dorm stations around Ohio University’s campus run by many student radio pioneers without whom we couldn’t exist today. We continued to push into the future when we went to the more cost-effective internet radio medium in 1999 and we pride ourselves on our non-traditional revenue and promotional channels (live concerts, mobile DJ gigs, sponsored web content). Our biggest event each year is Lobsterfest, which has drawn headliners ranging from the New Amsterdams and Kevin Devine to Jay Reatard and Andrew W.K.