KDIC’s got big plans

The S&B’s Editor-in-Chief, Yishi Liang ’16 sat down with KDIC head Evan Bruns ’16 to discuss the the radio station’s plans for the semester.

YL: What are the applications for KDIC looking like this year?

EB: There’s a lot of them. I think this is probably one of our best years for applications so far. From the ones I’ve peeked at, it looks like there are a lot of people who are really serious about it, and that’s what we care about. It’s not so much about a lot of applications, it’s more about being good applicants. At this point, we’re considering some sort of program for the people who don’t get in so they can still get involved in the radio in some way.

What do you see this upcoming semester looking like?

Well, I think it’s going to be trying to get things back together. We’ve had a pretty good semester with the stream so far – autoplay’s been up most of the time and I think our server’s stable. On the technical end of things, it should just be getting stuff rolled out … And then the other ambitious projects we’ve got going on – this semester we’re really trying to bring the recording studio in full swing. We’ve put together an application that’s going to allow anyone on campus to … request recording time with some information about what they want to do … We’ve got three people who are working together … to go with the people who want to record and help them use the equipment …

I know in the past there’s been some difficulty getting people to listen to KDIC and listenership has always been on the low end. How do you see a solution for that?

We’re doing a lot of exciting stuff to turn that around this semester. One of our approaches is about inclusivity. More people want to listen if they are represented on KDIC so we want to have a show for everybody. To that end, we’re getting some interesting shows. We’re getting a [resident] of the town on air this year with his two daughters. You may know him as the bartender of Rabbitt’s Tavern. We also have an [alum] who’s talking about the postgrad life … I think everyone should have something they want to listen to … But also just getting our name out there.

Are you planning to have any listening parties or events?

So far we’ve got a meet-and-greet coming up … on the 23rd [of September] at 8 p.m. It’s just going to be with all the KDIC staff and DJs. People can come through and meet everybody.

We’ve been kicking back and forth with Golden Dick about possibly doing a music festival with them for charity. Basically, on our end we would try to run it on a shoestring budget. We have a lot of the equipment and we have people who are willing to do it and then we could donate [the profit from selling omelets] to [Mid-Iowa Community Action (MICA)] or something. … It’s just a fun collaborate, publicity event, especially since the first-years don’t [know] what Golden Dick is and first-years don’t know what KDIC is so get all the dic(k)s together.

What do you think is going to be the biggest hurdle for this upcoming semester?

The biggest hurdle is going to be something we struggled with last semester really … It’s just keeping a good group dynamic. Because KDIC is a lot larger than many other student organizations and there’s no regular meeting of KDIC … where everyone in the organization is in one place because it’s 70 people … and that’s lowballing it.

This semester we’ve hired Ernie Nanetti-Palacios [‘17] to act as our internal outreach guy, or HR. What he’s going to do is make a real effort to just talk to the DJs and understand how they’re feeling. One of the biggest problems with college radio is getting people to actually show up for their shows … things were a little bad with that last semester. But, once again, this semester we’re just going to try keep everybody in touch with everybody … just making it a good place to work.