Students dj for Chaminade’s online radio station

When passing by the communications department, you might catch Bronson Kukonu playing his guitar in the Chaminade radio room. Kukonu is a junior, majoring in both business and accounting, and is a student disk jockey for Chaminade’s online radio station.

“I play my guitar whenever I’m in the booth,” Kukonu said. “I’ve been playing for a couple of months now. Sometimes for fun, I would play during the breaks for my own entertainment.”

For Kukonu, he saw Radio CUH as an opportunity for him to expand on his communication skills. “Participating in Radio CUH is good practice for me as far as talking in front of a big crowd or to the public in general,” he said.”

Numerous people are unaware that Chaminade has its own Internet radio station, let alone a communications course that offers the knowledge and skills necessary to become a student DJ at Chaminade.

Tom Galli, who is the instructor for the Internet Radio course, has been a professor of the day undergraduate program for almost 14 years. Throughout the course of his teachings, this has been the sixth semester that Internet Radio course has been offered to Chaminade students.

Currently, eight students are enrolled in the Internet Radio course as student disk jockeys. During the course, they are taught the rules and regulations of what can be played and said on the radio. The students are also required to pass a written exam to be eligible to complete the requirement of 40 hours of radio booth time.

“We made this radio station and it seemed like a great way to get people involved in it,” Galli said. “Most larger colleges that have radio stations have classes that are relevant to it such as audio, history classes, and things of that nature. We don’t have any classes that focus on audio production or radio journalism, at least not yet.”

The Internet Radio course is currently listed under Com 380 Special Topics. However, Professor Galli is in the process of petitioning the academic council to give the course a real class number either by next semester or this upcoming academic year.

“I hope that we get enough students involved that I can actually start recruiting interns to do some of the management tasks,” Galli said. “I would just love to see faculty, staff, and students involved in this. Eventually, I would love to see the booth manned more often then not. I would like to get to the point where people are actually fighting for their time on air.”

Ches Bond, a criminal justice major with a minor in communications, does about three hours a week in the radio booth while playing his favorite types of “80s and 90s” music. He is also fond of talking about important issues and national news while on the air.

“I firmly believe that there is nothing more important than being ale to talk to people,” Bond said. “Personally, I think the benefit of being in the radio booth is being able to hear myself speak. It’s amazing because I will get some good feedback from friends and family that are listening.”

Currently, Radio CUH is undergoing changes in order to target more Chaminade students to listen online and to get involved. Some of these changes include a new song schedule played throughout the day, more involvement in the radio booth, and more publicity through social media.

“I think there is a lot on our end that we can do to publicize Radio CUH,” Bond said. “This radio station is awesome, and it is a great time to get involved because we are changing some things to make it more user friendly and directed toward our target audience. This is a great time for students to make Radio CUH their radio station.”

The radio booth is available for all students, as long as they go through instructional training with Professor Galli. The course is open to students both fall and spring semester and fulfills a communication requirement. To tune in and listen online, visit radiocuh.org.