What is going on with the Alternation Radio Station?

Before going behind the scenes with the alternation let me first explain what it is.

The Alternation is a student run radio station at Gulf Coast State College. The alternation is on 90.7hd3 and Is recorded live from the fishbowl in the Student union east.

Recently the station went through a software change. The old automation system, which is in charge of helping lay out songs to play in a certain order and provide an interface for the DJ’s to see what is going on, was replaced with a new system.

Austin Greggs, One of the DJ’s for the alternation, had this to say about the new change

“I like the old system better, but I feel like this new system has more features and benefits. This new one allows wave files which is better. I will probably like this new system better than the old one over time, but we will have to see.”

The “HD” in 90.7hd3 does not mean high definition, in the radio world it means hybrid digital. Hybrid digital radio allows for higher quality music to be played. Standard radio uses the standard mp3 format, which is decent, however hybrid digital radio allows for the use of the use of wave files.

Wave files are the best possible way to listen to music. Waves are the raw sound without any compression being added. Mp3’s are inferior because they take the wave file and compress it to save space, which unfortunately leads to the sound quality decreasing as well.

Going behind the scenes with the alternation I asked Caleb Jordan who is a production assistant for WKGC What goes on behind the scenes on the alternation and he had this to say:

“I start off with the morning mix with Dr. Tom Hoots , then helps with the production whatever events are going on. Currently I am making 53 unique audio cuts for the men’s and women’s basketball season. 16 promos for the men and 10 for the women, but a single cut running for two weeks straight isn’t particularly interesting. I’m making a bunch of different ones and running through them so that you don’t hear the same one every time.”

I asked one of the student employees, Austin Greggs, what a typical day looks like helping to keep the station up and running, and he had this to say.

“well, you come into work and get out a news app and start writing a script and topics for the next hour or two. Also, I adjust the sound volume according to whatever song is playing.”

In addition to the change in the automation system, in the past year the alternation has moved from the ATC building to the Student union east, which is referred to as big Sue by many of the students and staff. Caleb Jordan informed me that the reason for this change is because the station is a student run radio station. Putting the studio in the café, which is close to the students, just helps to demonstrate that point.

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