Students at Bradley University have brought The Edge back from the brink of death. The enduring campus radio station has now been revitalized as a podcast studio for students interested in the digital audio realm.
The Edge was founded in 1989 by students wanting a student-led organization that did not have to go through the official campus station. Over time, the popularity of the club has grown and shrunk.
David Lennie, the faculty advisor for The Edge, worked at the station when he was a student at Bradley. He says it has been difficult keeping The Edge alive over the past few years because of a lack of interest in taking over the organization.
“Whenever a student has taken it over, especially if it’s a senior, I always tell them at the outset that your number one priority is you have to find a successor,” Lennie said. “A few years ago, I had a student who passed it on to someone who ended up being kind of a flake and she was only a junior, but she ended up doing nothing with it. So, it never started, and then I had a freshman come into my office and say, ‘I am interested in doing radio stuff’, and I said, ‘Boy do I have a deal for you’. So, we talked about it, and he basically took it over and he did it for four years with some varying results.”
Another successor was not named after that student’s tenure. Lennie had no idea what to do with the studio space and was ready to let student activities give it to other organizations potentially interested in audio related ventures.
“And then in walks Ben,” Lennie said, “and Ben came and wanted to do podcasting and I was like, ‘I have the deal for you.’ So, I gave him the whole thing and he’s been doing great.”
Ben was interested in starting a podcast about cybersecurity and privacy. Despite having his own equipment, he decided to see what the university had to offer first.
“I knew we used to have a campus radio station and I just didn’t know who was running it or if it was active at all,” Ben said. “I found out through the activities office that the club was inactive, which means there weren’t any executives or members maintaining the organization. So that’s when I stepped up and offered to try to revitalize The Edge and maybe do my podcast here in this studio and turn this into a podcasting space for students because I don’t think many students knew about The Edge.”
Ben brought on another student, Dennise Collins, as the vice president for the club. She was attracted to the idea of podcasting and doing voice over work and so found this to be a great opportunity.
“It’s just a good way to kind of start practicing and getting used to it and seeing if it is something I want to do in the long term,” Collins said. “That’s what got me drawn to it. It’s really fun helping Ben and Dave get it setup and just learning how podcasts work essentially.”
Ben is focused on rebuilding The Edge and curating new membership for the organization. “Over the years The Edge’s popularity has dwindled,” Ben said. “That has to do with just how people are consuming media now, it’s more on-demand. This studio is made for live. So, we’re trying to retask ourselves to do more podcasts. So, if a student or organization has an idea, they can come to us, and we will help you get started here in the studio and we will be able to distribute it on our platform.”
Collins is hopeful for the future of The Edge. “I think it will be long term because we have a lot of people who are interested and a lot of people do listen to podcasts and such, so it’s nice having something your peers create,” Collins said. “It is going to reach out to them, and it’s a good way for people to have all kinds of involvement.”
Ben has generated a lot of interest, making sure to hit up all of the activity fairs. Tons of people who want to be involved and have their own shows have signed up to join. For now, it looks like The Edge is back into the swing of things.