Oklahoma Christian University’s Eagle Radio started this semester revamped, now students can listen to their favorite Eagle Radio shows on the go using the TuneIn app.
TuneIn is accessible on any smartphone, iPod, computer and smart television, giving easier access to students, faculty and parents.
Eagle Radio was originally broadcast on its own 88.9 frequency from student-run KOCC-FM. Oklahoma Christian owned KOCC and played mostly Christian music. The original call letters “KOCC” stood for Oklahoma Christian College, the school’s former name.
“The quality was not great, but we could stream the music and it would play through some of the speakers, but really you’d listen to it on your computer,” David Jurney, Eagle Radio Advisor, said. “One of the big problems when we sold the radio station – [when] we went to just Eagle Radio on the internet rather than just [a] natural, ordinary station – is that people lost the ability to listen to us on the go.”
In 1999, the school sold the station and Eagle Radio became only available on the Internet through the university’s website, according to Jurney. Last semester, Eagle Radio had 24 students running 17 shows.
Switching to the TuneIn app, allows people to listen to Eagle Radio anywhere and anytime.
“One of our alums was talking to me [who] listens to TuneIn in his car,” Jurney said. “It’s going to give us a lot of flexibility now that people can listen to us on their Smartphones, on their tablets, in their cars, wherever it might be. … Looking at it, it had a lot of flexibility … It was free, it’s available on all the different devices and smartphones, smart TVs and it’s got a lot of other college radio stations on it, so it kind of fit.”
According to Jurney, there is not only a positive response from the Eagle Radio staff, but from other students as well.
“They’re all really excited about it,” Jurney said. “We were able to upgrade our equipment this year, and when we upgraded our equipment it led to really improved audio. … It led to audio that’s now compatible with TuneIn. so now the students are really excited because their friends can listen, their family can listen and alums can listen. And so we’re hopeful that people [will find] out about this [and] we’ll get a lot more listeners.”
Senior Micah Woodberry, director of Eagle Radio, said he and the Eagle Radio team are trying to get the station back to what it was before it was Internet only.
“We’re just trying to make it as good as it can be and we’re shooting to be the best college radio station in the city,” Woodberry said. “But obviously to do that we had to get the word out, get started with the new encoder and that led to new people, new hosts being on air – people who aren’t even in the department.”
Woodberry said he and the team have been wanting make Eagle Radio more accessible to students.
“This is something that… my assistant directors [and I] have been talking about since pretty early last semester,” Woodberry said. “We’ve been trying to plan it and get everything in order.”
Woodberry said student reaction to the announcement lifted the spirits of the Eagle Radio team.
“Within the last three to four days, since that announcement, we had over 100 new likes on Facebook, we’re almost up to 300 now,” Woodberry said. “And we’ve also had more followers on Twitter and on the TuneIn app. On the Eagle Radio page we have 52 followers. I think it’s been a really positive reaction.”
The TuneIn app has provided insight into interaction with audiences by measuring amount of listeners and frequency of listeners throughout the day.
“It’s real exciting,” senior Dani Hebert, assistant director, said. “A lot of people have now started to listen on the app, but also connect with us on Facebook.”
Hebert has her own show every Wednesday at 10 a.m.
“My mom hasn’t been able to listen for a while because of the streaming, but she got the app,” Hebert said.
Online listening is available at OCEagleMedia.org.
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