Northern Star finds its voice in online radio

By Tom Parisi
NIU Public Affairs Office

DEKALB – The Northern Star, the university’s award-winning student newspaper, is launching an online radio station.

The student-run NS Radio will debut in October. Listeners will log onto the Star’s Web site at www.northernstar.info and click on the NS Radio link in the top left corner of the home page.

The 24-hour Webcast will feature local bands and an eclectic mix of alternative, hip-hop and Top-40 music. NS Radio also will phase in live student broadcasters and deejays to provide evening news, sports and talk radio.

“There are lots of Webcast student stations,” says Jim Killam, Northern Star adviser. “What’s unique about NS Radio is that it’s being launched by the newspaper and will be completely integrated with the Star’s Web site. To my knowledge, there isn’t another student newspaper doing this. Some schools put multiple student media under one umbrella, but I think we’ll be the only one where the radio station is completely driven by the newspaper.”

WKDI, a student-run Webcast station, shut down last year, leaving a void in the market. “With no student radio right now, there is a need for this,” Killam says. “We have many students interested in working for a radio station, and we believe there is a demand for local radio geared toward student listeners. We thought this was a natural extension of the Star.”

This past spring, Northern Star Online Editor Jeremy Norman piloted NS Radio on the Star’s Web site. “The student feedback was phenomenal,” says Norman, a senior from Frankfort who is majoring in computerized design. “We got enough response to push for a permanent station this fall.”

Norman says the pilot NS Radio became the most popular link on the Star’s hugely popular Web site. About 36,000 individuals visit the online college newspaper site daily. Earlier this year, Editor & Publisher named the Northern Star Online as the best college newspaper online service, and the Associated Collegiate Press honored the Web site with the Pacemaker award, considered the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate newspapers.

The Northern Star will focus on integrating its three mediums-the newspaper, the Web site and the online radio station. For instance, a news story in the paper might be accompanied by video online and live interviews on NS Radio.

Junior communication major Scott Smith has been hired as NS Radio program director. Smith already has six years experience in broadcast. At age 15, he started working behind the scenes for WFPS in Freeport and worked his way up to an on-air post. He also has filled in as a host at Chicago’s alternative rock station, WKQX, better known as Q-101, and he currently works weekends at WXRX in Rockford.

Smith will be in charge of hiring and training on-air personalities, and he’s likely to be the station’s first live voice. “We have plans for various on-air shows,” Smith says. “Some will be music intensive, and others will feature the talk format.”

Mark Bieganski, editor in chief of the Northern Star, also is playing a large role in the development of the station. “It’s hard to get students to pick up newspapers because of the Internet and television,” the Chicago native says. “Since a lot of students spend their extra time surfing the Web, this is another way to branch off of that. NS Radio provides another opportunity for students to get their news.”

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