SuperMix Serves the Campus 24/7

By Kelly Insel

Broadcasting from the corner of the Whitney Building in the Electronic Media Communications department, Onondaga Community College’s radio station, SuperMix, streams across the globe via its Web site, http://supermix.us. This is a great accomplishment for the staff of about 27 students because year ago, the SuperMix was born after the old radio station of the 1980’s (which kept a relatively stable musical format since the 1960’s) was done away with. Decades ago, OCC’s radio station was operating in downtown Syracuse.

“We’re the pioneers,” said Operations Manager Quindell “Q” Williams. Lead by several students, including Williams, Programming Director Stephen “Bondo” Bond and Music Director Kevin “Kaos” Kloss, the radio station was revived along with the guidance of faculty members Mark “Magic” Mangicaro and Vince Spadafora. Williams says he feels as though reviving the radio station “is something you can tell your grandkids” about.

As a 24 hour, seven-day-a-week, student-run radio station, SuperMix runs its primary format consisting of alternative rock from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Until about 10 p.m., specialty shows that the students run consist of a diverse range of musical tastes, including hip hop, classic rock, jazz, punk rock, heavy rock, and “very” alternative rock.

“It’s a good range for anybody and everybody who wants to listen to pretty much anything,” said Bond. They also announce home men’s and women’s basketball and men’s lacrosse games, as well as East Syracuse-Minoa football games.

As main director, Williams has the job of overseeing the students on the radio staff. “I connect the outside to the inside,” said Williams, which requires him to inform and involve students and faculty alike on new ideas or events relating to the station. Williams also runs the meetings on Mondays to keep everyone on the same page.

Bond, who is the former sports director, now ensures that the radio’s sounds remains relatively constant. He also decides who will be on air and at what time; including making sure someone is covering the home games on campus. Regarding the planning that goes into the home games, Bond said, “It’s a big production, without a doubt.”
As the music director, Kloss makes the decisions of what music is played when and how often in the 10-hour rotations. He also decides if new music will be played or tossed. Though, for the specialty shows, students in the EMC class get to generally pick their own songs.

There are also several other directors on the SuperMix staff. Promotions Director Brandon Caswell is the “image” of the station and Alli Beard, who is the productions director, “takes care of everything outside of the music,” according to Williams. The PSA Director, Matt Moran, focuses on creating bonds with academic and other department programs on campus. Also, Brandon Sullivan is the new sports director and Jacob Schaap is the secretary of the staff.

When asked about problems that have occurred in the process of the new semester, Williams, Bond and Kloss laugh knowingly. Last year, the computers would fail sometimes and some students would forget some of the technicalities of operating the board, which resulted in some audible mistakes.

Bond said, “There have been a lot of problems here. We are a student-run station, so you learn as you go. The way I like to refer to it as baptism under fire.” Bond continues, saying that this method of instruction has been “the best policy.” Williams added that there have also been some problems getting their logo, Web site and slogans approved by the college. “We’re on the right track now,” said Williams.

Williams believes the radio station has been “very successful.” He continued, “One listener is good enough for me, but one listener translates to two, four... We have a dedicated staff – that’s success in itself – people that are willing to work to make it successful. We have people who actually listen, people who give input. We’re in the dorms. If somebody’s listening, that’s success.”

Bond agreed with Williams and said, “I would say we’re a great success because this is only a two-year school. You constantly have people coming in and out and it’s hard to maintain anything. That’s a success on its own – that we can keep so many dedicated people here that want to come back and see the station do well. I think we’re on the right track and the sky’s the limit for the station right now.”
Kloss added by saying that they have made great strides from having very few listeners to being able to broadcast at ESM games. “I’ve gone from my first shift where all I did was hit the space bar to programming and building music logs and doing scheduling. It’s a lot of fun,” said Kloss.

Each of the three directors plan to be listening to SuperMix in the future – even when they are no longer doing the broadcasting themselves. On the matter, Bond said, “In 10, 15 years, we can flick on http://supermix.us.and hear somebody from OCC and see the new and innovative things that maybe we didn’t think of.” After graduation, the three of them would like to still be involved with the radio station. Bond explained, “When you dedicate as much time as the three of us have and other people have to the station, you begin to love it so much that if something does go wrong, you want to just fix it right away.”

For the future of the radio station, Williams said, “We definitely have a few tricks up our sleeves.” Overall, the students want more listeners, to retain their consistency, to get the community involved with the station and to be as innovative as possible.

Williams, Bond and Kloss are all EMC majors. Kloss career plans include going into radio. He said, “I can’t imagine having another career.” Williams and Bond, on the other hand, plan to go be involved in television in the future. Williams said, “I joke and say I want to be the male equivalent of Oprah Winfrey.” Bond says that he would like to have a job like broadcaster Mike Tirico. However, they both agree that will probably want something to do with radio in the future as well.

Williams and Bond see their involvement with radio as accidental. Bond elaborated, “You develop a small passion for radio. It’s more fun than it is work and I see video now as more work than fun sometimes, unfortunately.”

All three of them have spent about two years with the station and they each plan to graduate in the spring. Kloss said, “By the time I leave here – which may be next semester – hopefully then I will have helped people and taught people enough that when I’m not here that they’re able to go through and do those things on their own.”
SuperMix streams live on their Web site at http://supermix.us and they are also available in the residence halls on television on channel 15. For questions and feedback, you can e-mail them at supermix@sunyocc.edu or call them at 498-2212.