Campus gets a new radio studio
The Journalism and Mass Communication (JRMC) department finally got its radio studio up and running last week, after overcoming years of budgetary hurdles and red tape.The idea of establishing a radio studio – a vital component of JRMC education – was on the table since the move from the Tahrir Campus. But budgetary constraints and getting the right equipment proved to be a sore challenge.
However, Nabil Fahmy, Dean of the School of Public Affairs, gave the go-ahead some time last year allowing Associate Professor of Practice Kim Fox, who teaches the radio course, and JRMC Chair Mervat Abou Oaf to begin working on setting it up.
During the inauguration reception last week, Abou Oaf said the radio studio will better equip and prepare students for the media market after they graduate.
Fox said that the department has big plans to expand the effectiveness of having a radio studio on campus. But for the time being, the studio will have a positive impact on how students approach radio and audio production.
“We are working on the details of having our own radio station. But technically speaking, it is the JRMC radio studio, which will be the home of AUC radio. And we have a vision that will obviously be a vehicle for us to promote our activities not just for journalism but for the university community as a whole,” she said.
Fox hopes that she can inspire students to do radio production in Arabic as well.
In the meantime, the new radio studio has proven a hit with various dignitaries who attended the inauguration reception.
President Lisa Anderson and Dean Fahmy were joined in attendance by such media figures as Youssef El Husseiny, Gehan Abd Allah and Yara El Gendy.
El Husseiny, a radio and television anchor at ONTV, said: “[The radio studio] is going to help in bringing a new generation of radio anchors, who are very well trained and very well educated.”
Nadine Shaker, a journalism alumna, remembers when the studio consisted of little more than a table and a computer.
“I see the transformation; it looks really professional,” she said.
Sarah Nabil, a CMA major who is currently taking the radio production course, remembers taking a course two years ago that required the use of a radio lab; in the absence of one her audio quality suffered.
“But definitely, I now feel the difference in JRMC 460 with radio studio.”
For Abou Oaf, the radio studio is one project of several yet to come.
“I am very happy and very proud to have been able to accomplish this,” she said.
The next project, scheduled for completion in 2014, is to provide photography students with a dark room.
