The Hilltoppers are ready to storm the airwaves, with a new student radio station coming soon, known simply as “Topper Radio,” a combination of a station and a student organization.

“It’s gonna be, literally, everything,” said freshman Nathalie Phan, one of the key players behind the station.

Topper Radio promises to deliver, among other things, “talk shows, a diverse pool of music, and an open forum for students to express their ideas,” according to Phan.

Freshman Austin Marshall, another founder, also adds: “There’s ideas of doing talk shows, either pre-recorded or live. Right now, we’re looking at being automated playlists, and adding pre-recorded shows, or one or two live shows.”

Currently, the station and the program are still in development, and it’s expected to start testing towards the end of this semester, with a full official beginning in the fall, streaming through Internet provider Live365.

For the moment though, Topper Radio is still just an idea. To bring it to life, Phan and Marshall are recruiting and promoting through events like the Involvement Fair and are trying to build an infrastructure.

“We will have an executive board, which will be comprised of our communications director/outreach director, our financial director and a music director,” Marshall said.

“Then underneath those we’ll have different roles like a content producer, who will make sure that there’s content for each live show or will work with the program director to make sure that we are creating new shows that will adapt to the differences in the student body.”

They have already pulled in decent support, including faculty advisor and Assistant Professor of Digital Media Management Gregg Perry, who has had many years of experience with online radio prior to his teaching gig.

“Since I had some involvement with the subject matter before and with the Student Digital Media Club, [the students] asked me if I would like to sponsor this organization as well, and I said yes,” he remarked, before adding that he is “very impressed” with the progress, noting previous ideas for online television and radio that never panned out.

“I was approaching them with the same sense of skepticism, but I said ‘You know what? If you will do this, this, and this and show me at least ten people who are willing to take the ball and run with it here, then I will help you,” Perry said.

Once Topper Radio launches, there will be plenty of avenues for students to come and get involved. If a student has a band or any kind of musical project, they can apply to get airplay.

Anyone who wishes to become a part of the shows or become a DJ will have to go through a selection process consisting of a resume and a personality test.

And Phan mentioned that there will be polls conducted in hopes of finding out what the student body would be looking to get out of this new station.

“It’ll be like most college radio stations,” Perry said. “They’re trying to make it a little more accessible to everyone on campus, but I think primarily what they’re looking for is experience in running a radio station. The way they’re approaching it….they are actually trying to do something for St. Edward’s.”