A radio theater in the podcast era

On the second floor of the Serena Building on Southeast’s Main Campus sits a studio filled by a handful of students.

Gazing around the room, one can see a brightly lit sound board with lights bouncing up and down from voices spoken into gray foam microphones. The walls are covered in yellow soundproof insulation.

This is the original location of the on-campus radio station but has transformed into the place where Redhawk Radio Theater students create podcast stories.

Redhawk Radio Theater is one of the newest clubs which formed at the end of September. The club develops fiction-scripted stories and records them in the studio in podcast format.

The group started with the help of Redhawk Radio Theater founder Clayton Hester, a Southeast junior and the president of the club. Hester is an announcer and reporter for KRCU and a staff reporter for the Arrow.

“It was mostly started out of interest in the flexible medium that is audio,” Hester said. “Personally I had an interest in wanting to start something like that, but it hadn’t come to me yet to get students interested until now. I wanted to bring back this kind of radio drama because it is such a workable medium in the podcast era.”

The group’s first production is a comedy called “Hear Me Out,” with plans to do other types of stories as well.

The scripts are written by the students and help cultivate creativity among group members. All podcasts produced can be found on Spotify, TuneIn, Apple, Google and Stitcher.

“We make the scripts more segmented,” Hester said. “We take an idea that could possibly fit in an hourlong script and release them in about three parts so that we can have content going out all the time.”

With around six members, everyone plays a different role or even doubles up on parts to keep the club going. Becca Peach, a junior at Southeast, has the role of acting.

“I missed doing theater, and it was hard to fit it in my schedule with work and class, so I decided to do the Radio Theater,” Peach said.

The club meets on a monthly basis to discuss plans. During the month of October, Redhawk Radio Theater will broadcast its newest show in the mystery genre.

For more information, visit the club’s Facebook page, Redhawk Radio Theater.