Aggie Radio is going FM

    This September Aggie Radio will officially be an FM broadcasting station. This progression to the Utah State University radio station is due to a change in the Federal Communications Commission.
    “The FCC have these FM frequencies that aren’t being used, and for a long time they weren’t open to the public,” said Cody Scott, Aggie Radio station manager. “Just two years ago they opened them up for application.”
    The application process took just over a year. An application was submitted in September of last school year. Aggie Radio received confirmation in October 2014 that they would be making the transition to FM radio. The station will continue to broadcast online at http://tunein.com/radio/Aggie-Radio-895-s86622/ with a variety of shows each day.
    “Aggie Radio is here to inform students, entertain students and all that; but it is also meant to help the students that get involved with their development,” said Nathan Laursen, Vice President for student services. “Becoming an FM station will only add to that.”
    The radio station will be installing equipment over the summer and should be broadcasting an FM signal by July. The official coming out date is set for Sept. 3 of this year.
    “The reason we would like to start on 9/23 is because our frequency is 92.3,” Scott said. “We are also coming out at that time because of the transition period.”
    Once the transition is made, Aggie Radio will continue to broadcast from their current studio, on the main floor of the Taggart Student Center. Their signal will wirelessly transfer from the Utah Public Radio tower.
    “I feel the transition is going well, we have been working towards this for a while, doing small things like a public file, as well as improving over all quality of the station,” said Riley Thompson, Aggie Radio marketing director.
    Currently, the Aggie Radio website is broadcasting a variety of music genres at different times of the day. Once the station goes FM the genre of the music will be centralized to indie rock.
    “A lot of students like that kind of music and there is no station in the valley that has that,” Scott said. “Music will be played throughout the day and night, but we will also do a morning news/sports show and then talk shows in the afternoon.”
    Right now Aggie Radio is asking for volunteers. The station is a completely 100% volunteer organization. Hours are logged on the school service giving website and last year Aggie Radio had the most hours logged.
    “We need people to come sit in for an hour and do news or music. Aggie Radio has grown a lot this year but we’re not quite where we need to be to go FM,” Scott said. “The nice thing about it is a lot of our staff are young freshmen and sophomores. They’ll probably have a chance to see a day where DJs (people that play music) are payed and one has to apply for the job. So it’d be best to get on the ground floor now.”
    “I am looking forward to the opportunity the students will have, not only students that are involved but those that will be able to listen to the programing these students are doing,” Laursen said.