Radio Club is back for another semester, and a new group of students are at the helm.

Club President, sophomore Emma Dornburgh is hoping to revive Castleton’s Internet Radio station after several semesters stuck in limbo.

“I’ve always been very interested in radio, so they were trying to find somebody to run the Radio Club, and I seized the opportunity,” Dornburgh said.

She aims to bring the club “back to life” and spread the word to both students tuning in and those interested in participating.

Castleton’s radio station has been around since the 1970s, and, until 2019, was a traditional broadcast radio that went out over the airwaves; called WIUV. It has long been a place for students to gain experience in radio, and for many it turned into their career.

Radio Club faculty advisor, Michael Talbott, called the station “formative” to individuals who would later work in radio throughout Rutland County and Vt.

Now, Castleton Internet Radio can be accessed via streaming.

“For financial reasons that was the sound thing to do,” said Talbot, “but also it seemed a smart move to align with student interests. More and more students and people in general were consuming radio via streaming and not over the air.”

Since the streaming station was launched in 2021, Talbot noted much higher student involvement.

“Already I feel like it’s achieving the exact goals that I wanted,” Talbot said. “Students see other students in there, and are like, ‘Hey, what’s this? This is cool! Can I get involved? Can I do a show?’ And that’s what we always wanted.”

This is the kind of Radio Club Dornburgh is hoping to help facilitate, one where people get excited about the radio and bring all kinds of different shows and music tastes to the table.

“Personally, I really want to get more metal going in the station,” she said, “but I also want to have everybody bring more of a rounded variety. I want everybody to be able to listen to our radio, but I also don’t want to limit it to, like, on this day we do this, on this day we do that, because I want people to feel like they can listen to the radio anytime.”

Club members, such as Carissa Challinor, have already begun putting new shows down on the schedule.

Challinor’s show, A.I. vs. Blank, will involve prompting an A.I. program, such as ChatGPT, to write a story, and comparing that story to that of another source; a different A.I., a real person, or a story generated by the game Episode.

“It’d be cool to see if A.I. is really on par with these other things,” said Challinor. “Is it better, or is it worse, and after reading the two stories based on the theme, discuss it and kind of figure out which one that week was better.”

Most of the other shows currently on the schedule are centered around music of various genres, including punk rock, metal, and jazz. The station and everyone involved with it are abuzz with ideas for new shows, and always open to more.

“We could have a news show every week, just a brief update. SGA leaders should come on and use the stations to make announcements to students. Faculty should do shows,” Talbott weighed in.

He hopes it may come to resemble his college’s radio station in Southern Calif., that played the “coolest, newest music…things you couldn’t hear on mainstream radio.”

Students and faculty interested in participating can attend the Radio Club’s weekly meeting, Mondays at 12:30 in Leavenworth 55. You can contact Emma Dornburgh via email at egd004225@vermontstate.edu.

For those interested in listening, it’s “Castleton Internet Radio” on the TuneIn Radio app.

As put by Dornburgh, “We’ve got your news, we’ve got your sports, and we’ve got your music.”