Jones Student Radio (JSR) started the 2023-24 school year by releasing their first-ever set of radio segments.
Instead of broadcasting over the radio like a traditional station, JSR produces short, podcast-like segments for their website, jcpstudentradio.com.
“Jones Student Radio is an online-only radio station that’s created and run by students at Jones with segments that they conceptualize and produce and record all on their own with guidance and assistance,” said Cameron Dickenson ‘25, who founded the club last year alongside Sophia Franklin ‘25.
A love for radio drew Dickenson and Franklin to develop JSR.
“I personally had been listening to a lot of college radio and I thought it was really interesting how it’s an old form of media, but it was such a good way to get your message out there,” said Franklin.
The pair went into the process of starting the club with little knowledge of how to do so.
“We had a dream, but we didn’t really know what that would look like in reality,” said Dickenson. “We didn’t know how these college stations worked and it’s not really a thing that happens in other CPS high schools.”
After being turned down by multiple teachers, the pair approached English teacher Rachel Viano.
“We kind of hit the jackpot with Ms. Viano because we were asking everyone but we ended up with a person that happens to know what they’re doing and are very involved in the process,” said Franklin.
Viano saw the ambitions of the pair and quickly became an essential part of the project.
“[Dickenson and Franklin] had this big dream when they approached me about being a sponsor and then came all the nuts and bolts and the details and logistics and legalities of actually making it work,” said Viano.
However, a lot has changed technique wise since Viano was program director of her radio station as a senior in college.
“It was a long time ago, so all the systems and softwares are not things that are available anymore,” said Viano.
That process of setting up JSR ended up taking much longer than expected, but a Friends of Jones grant helped speed up the process.
“We spent most of the second semester last year figuring it out,” said Viano. “I’ve had many, many, many phone calls with our music licensing BMI and ASCAP, which we are now fully licensed for, thanks to Friends of Jones.”
The BMI and ASCAP are the primary music licensing companies in the United States, and are often a major barrier to access for smaller stations.
“If you’re going to use any music by the artists who they license, you have to pay around seven hundred dollars,” said Viano.
Club members decide what gets published when deciding ideas to talk to about. What JSR publishes is mostly up to the club’s members.
“It’s so open ended,” said Franklin. “You can really bring in all these different creative avenues and express it through one channel.”
Viano, Franklin and Dickenson serve as co-leaders.
“We three serve as the executive board members and then we entrust a lot of the creative process to club members, and let them do whatever they want to within the boundaries of what is appropriate,” said Franklin.
As JSR’s first year of broadcasts continues, Franklin and Dickenson are focusing on expanding their audience.
“I think [a goal is] creating a more consistent schedule with uploads that are more frequent,” said Dickenson. “We’re at once a week right now, and that’s good, but ideally we’d be doing more per week and having more segments out there.”
Featuring some of the many Jones student artists is also a priority for the club.
“Everyone at the school is really creative and we have some great musicians here and I want JSR to be a place where everyone can share their love of music,” said Franklin.
