Radio minor available for students this fall

A new interdisciplinary Radio minor is being offered through the School of Communication starting this coming fall, and is now open for enrollment.

The Radio minor will focus on creating content for audio consumption on a mass level across multiple platforms, even as the balance shifts from terrestrial satellite broadcasting to the Internet. The 20-hour minor includes courses in programming, ratings and media research, voice performance for broadcasting, news and informational programming, and a course focused on the business of radio.

An interdisciplinary committee chaired by Phillip Glenn, interim dean of the School of Communication, helped create the new radio curriculum. Members of the committee included John Anderson, interim chair of Communication Studies and an expert in performance; Karl Baehr, director of business and entrepreneurial studies in Marketing Communication, whose 30-year career in radio includes on-air, managing news operations, program syndication, and ownership; Marsha Della-Giustina, associate professor of journalism, an expert in radio and broadcast journalism; and Jack Casey, general manager of WERS.

“Radio, as an industry, has changed dramatically,” said Casey ’69, a broadcast veteran with almost 50 years in the industry. “Beyond skill sets, radio practitioners need to understand the changing dynamics they will face. Our students will learn how radio works as a business, that the business continues to change quickly and dramatically, and that they as industry leaders need to be able to create effective strategies to deal with these changes.”

Having been involved with the radio industry and Emerson College for some time (he returned to his alma mater as an adjunct professor in 1983), Casey said the Radio minor is well built and positioned to provide students with a solid foothold in a challenging and changing industry.

“It’s moving fast out there,” Casey said. “Business models are changing. To borrow a phrase, we’ve traded broadcast dollars for digital dimes, and now, mobile nickels. We need to prepare future professionals in the radio industry to work within these new industry dynamics…to become innovators, even if it comes down to crafting their own careers from among multiple skill sets.”

The Radio minor is open for enrollment now. For more information, contact Phillip_Glenn@emerson.edu.