Last Thursday, April 5^th, was a first. The inaugural meeting of the SPC Radio Club took place. Mark Matthews, founder and head instructor of the Music Industry and Recording Arts program, welcomed a room packed with students, faculty, and staff each eager to take part in this landmark venture.

SPC Radio is the name of the first ever radio and Internet radio station St. Petersburg College has ever known. The vision for the station is for it to have global reach and encompass a wide variety of genres and “fresh new wonderful ideas.” The Radio Production Club will operate the station and even though it is a typical SPC Club abiding by SGA’s rules and regulations for formation and bylaws; SPC Radio will operate like a business. Instead of a “President” there will be a “CEO” and in place of a “Treasurer” there will be a “CFO.” This model not only offers cool titles you can brag to your friends about, it also provides real world experience for students in several areas of the college.

The list of jobs is extensive and has something to interest students with majors outside of music. Legal studies, business, political science, accounting, communications, music production, and music performance scholars can each find an exciting job in the framework of SPC Radio. The list of jobs is extensive.

SPC Radio is looking for

• Managerial Staff
• Promotion Coordinators
• Business Affairs
• Legal & Contracts
• Program Direction
• On-Air Voice Talent
• Script Writing
• Special Project Coordinators
• Artist and Label Relations
• News Production
• Technical Management
• Engineering Coordinators
• A&R Representatives
• Compliance Monitors
• Advisor Liaisons

In addition to the jobs listed above SPC Radio is looking for a Transition Team of six people to fulfill the following roles:

• Program Director
• Website Coordinator
• Production Facility Construction Coordinator
• Legal & Contracts Coordinator
• Technical Infrastructure Coordinator
• Business Administrator

These six individuals, unlike the other positions (CEO, CFO, COO), will be picked by “the Council of Elders,” which is a panel of faculty advisors who oversee the operation of SPC Radio. If you are interested in applying for one of the six transitional positions please submit your application via email to Mark Matthews matthews.mark@spcollege.edu

Please include in your application:

• Your name
• Your major
• Which position you wish to hold
• A brief statement explaining why you feel qualified for the position

(You should provide a statement for each position to which you are applying)

Mark Matthews also teaches a class called Audio Broadcast Foundations, which has already begun recording several shows for the station in genres including Electronic, Country, Jazz and Blues, Local, Reggae, Hip-Hop, Rock, and Metal. The tentative deadline for “going live” is August 1^st, 2012 with a goal of 24-hour playtime. SPC Radio is open to more show ideas and content. An individual from the political science department suggested the idea of documenting the return home and personal stories of local veterans, which was quickly adopted as worthy of airtime.

The concepts are big and reach outside the college community into the local area. Future plans to host a SXSW style music festival in the city of St. Petersburg, sponsored and hosted by SPC Radio, are already on the table. There are also plans to hold local concerts in various venues including the MIRA Studio, Local 662, the Palladium, State Theatre, Café Bohemia, and other places. All of these concerts will be filmed in high definition and audio recorded for playback on the station site.

There are a number of ways to get involved whether you join the club, send a tip to the station about local musicians you would like to hear, or just spread the word. The Radio Production Club meets every Thursday from 12:30pm to 1:45pm in SA 114 on the Gibbs Campus. You can also send questions to Mark Matthews via his email as mentioned earlier in this article. Be a part of something great whether you help in the production or tune in to support, SPC Radio promises to be the coolest Internet radio station out there.