UC Merced student Alex Kang has a voice meant for the airwaves - or in this day and age, the Internet.
An economics major, Kang, 23, didn’t envision spending his senior year as a broadcaster. But he’s the creator and host of UC Merced’s bi-monthly podcast, keeping the college community up on current events and local issues, while dispensing some entertainment.
Although only in its fourth episode, the podcast is building a strong following and Kang is already receiving ideas for his next few episodes from listeners.
“My goal was to get the students together to build a sense of community,” he said. “A lot of events happen on campus, but if you don’t live on campus, you don’t know about them. This helps get the word out.”
He is still refining the format, but a typical podcast begins with campus announcements, then the Issue of the Week segment in which Kang discusses a topic affecting the college community, and ends with a study tip and some GRE words to learn.
Kang approached the university with the idea of reaching out to a wider audience and potential students through the Internet.
By listening to his favorite radio shows, other UC system podcasts and some honest advice from his family, Kang set the foundation for future UC Merced podcasters.
He said by far his most challenging but also most rewarding task is the Issue of the Week. The last issue took four days, including interviews, research, editing and production, all on top of his studies.
Despite the work load, Kang said he enjoys the podcast.
“I definitely like meeting people and I really like splicing it together,”he said.
Since doing the show, the journalism bug bit him and he said he’d like to see where that road leads. At the same time, Kang said, he wants to pass on what he has learned so the podcast can be the voice of the college community as it grows.
“Somebody said that adopting technology for the sake of technology will lead you nowhere,” he said. “It has to have a purpose.”
