Photo by Taylor Bradford
by Taylor Bradford ‘19
Editor-in-chief
In contradiction to the Gordon ratio, the male presence has dominated Scot Radio since it began back in 2012.
Rachel Lehmann ’17, however, breaks the trend as she enters the 2016-17 academic year as Director for Scot Radio.
Before Scot Radio was even a thought in Lehmann’s mind, she loved radio. She and her sister would pretend to have their own radio show while growing up. Recording tape after tape, they collected 36 cassette tapes of their show. Her passion for radio would continue into high school, as she listened to the radio everyday.
When Lehmann first began working for Scot Radio as a sophomore, she was a technical intern. This was her first experience handling the station’s mechanics.
Lehmann studied abroad at Oxford University for her junior year. While there, she and Shalomita Maleachi ’17 started their own podcast called the “Oxford Comma.” Their podcast covered a wide range of topics, all spoken from the perspectives of American students studying in a foreign place; such topics include academia, religious and cultural issues.
Having returned to the States, Lehmann now succeeds David Chamberlain, Jimmy Sicord and Dane Vandenberg. However, she will not be doing it alone. Mwendwa Mutuku ’19 will be the Technical Director for the station. They will also be accompanied by Fort Collins marketing agency, who functions as the station’s Marketing Director.
Scot Radio, Lehmann said, has been “fairly exclusive and under the radar in the past.”
“Scot Radio is at ground zero currently. It’s lacking in image and even more so, it’s connection to the Gordon College student body as a whole,” said Toussaint.
As Lehmann steps into her new leadership position, she raises a question that is asked nationwide: Why aren’t more women in radio?
Out of the 20 applications that were submitted, Lehmann observed that three to four times more men applied than women. Lehmann wonders if this is because “they don’t think what they have to say is important or they are concerned that their voices will sound shrill.”
Lehmann hopes that everyone sees Scot Radio as a welcoming environment, where “people know what it [Scot Radio] is and feel more like they can participate in it through various ways.”
The leadership team’s hope is that the staff will “make it”–Scot Radio–”more accessible for people.”
Lehmann and her team will be bringing a set of new initiatives and ideas to Scot Radio. They plan to partner with multiple clubs, publications, and musical groups on campus. They also have plans to begin producing podcasts on Sound Cloud.
Lehmann said, “That will be exciting because people can download them and listen to them whenever they want. Normally, when people have done shows in the past they have aired and then they go away. But this way, if the hosts want, they can put them on our Sound Cloud indefinitely. That way, you can track how many people have been listening to it even after it has aired. It has a bit more permanence.”
Listeners can access Scot Radio by going to their new web page, http://scotrad.io .
Stay tuned.
Leave a Reply