By Kayla Cox
Correspondent
At the College, the student-run radio station, WTSR 91.3, is stepping up its game with a new control soundboard, creating the opportunity to open a remote studio in the Brower Student Center. These upgrades intend to expand student organization involvement opportunities and deepen hands-on media experience for the College community.
Commissioned by the College in 1966, the radio station has long been a hub for alternative and specialty music, public-service news programming and live college sports coverage. Now, nearly 60 years later, WTSR is making one of its most visible moves yet.
According to WTSR General Manager Kevin Potucek, the new space in the Stud will officially open for broadcasts starting in the Spring 2026 semester.
“The old box office is being set up as a remote studio. We’ll be broadcasting from the student center Monday through Friday during the day, ending at 4 p.m., while evenings and weekends will still be broadcast from our main studios in Kendall Hall,” he said.
This is all made possible by the new soundboard. A control soundboard is the central hub that manages all the audio signals in a studio or live broadcast setup, such as microphones, instruments, computers and remote feeds. When setting up a remote studio in a new building, the soundboard serves as the bridge between that location and the main station elsewhere on campus.
Situated in the old box office in the Stud, the new setup aims to bring campus radio directly to the students.
“Our hope is to engage directly with the people who spend time in the student center during the week,” Potucek explained. “This spring will be a trial period to see how well the student center studio is received. If the feedback is positive, we hope to stay in the student center for the foreseeable future.” The initiative reflects WTSR’s ongoing commitment to innovation while maintaining its trademark motto: “Open your mind.”
The move transforms the production of the student-run radio shows from a behind-the-scenes operation only located in Kendall Hall into a visible, interactive part of the College’s daytime energy. The studio’s glass-windowed setup will allow students to watch live shows unfold as they pass through the student center, offering an interactive glimpse into campus media in action.
Senior art education major Vivian Drew-Perna says she’s hopeful for this upgrade, “We don’t get nearly as much attention as it deserves, but college radio is something we put so much effort into, so I think people will be way more excited about it if they can see it live.”
Drew-Perna has been running a radio show through WTSR for the past three semesters with Christina Cinque, a senior communications major. The show is called “I Could’ve Written That” on air every Wednesday night from 7 to 8 p.m. Currently living together for their third year in a row, this duo credits their lasting friendship to the radio station. “We met in the studio the first week of freshman year,” Drew-Perna said.
Cinque, who is also specializing in digital filmmaking and the current president of Lions Television, said, “I’ve watched the studio go through many different executive boards and have many different updates and I think that the studio is at a place right now where it’s ready to take this next step. I’m very excited to see how it is handled by the executive board and the general body.”
The idea of the remote studio has been talked about for many years, but the main obstacle was location. “With the box office going completely online, the space opened up and can now be used by WTSR,” Potucek explained. He credits campus partners, such as Dave Connor, the executive director of student life, who helped make the project possible.
With its new control board and a more central campus presence, WTSR is tuning into the next era of college radio, one that’s not just heard, but now seen across the College. The upgraded infrastructure means you’ll be learning radio with tools and facilities that mirror professional standards. For students interested in radio, production or live media, this is an incredible opportunity.
