Making airwaves: Inside the student radio station at St. Mary’s College

For a group of St. Mary’s College students involved in SMC Radio — the local secondary school’s own radio station that can be heard online locally and across the world — being live and on air has been a life changer.

Grade 12 student Michael Hapanovich, with schoolmate Jack Wuerdemann, hosts a live morning sports show on SMC Radio twice a week before school, beginning at 8:30 a.m.

“I’ve always been into sports and when I learned that our school had a radio station I figured it was a great way to start because I’m going to Centennial College for journalism and sports broadcasting,” Hapanovich told SooToday.

“We call it SMC Sports. We talk about the scores from the night before in local sports and the NBA, NHL, MLB, any trades that have happened. It’s usually about a 30-minute show. It’s great to be on air. We get a lot of listeners. It feels great to be live. A lot of people get scared when they’re on the air, but not me. I love being on the air and having people hear what I have to say about a topic that I love to talk about,” Hapanovich said.

As part of the school’s March Madness activities, SMC Radio is encouraging its listeners this week to vote for their favourite female singer, playing songs from 16 top-selling artists such as Madonna, Cher, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Beyonce and Whitney Houston.

Three Grade 9 students were broadcasting live from the school’s cafeteria and commons area during Wednesday’s lunch break.

“It feels amazing to be on SMC Radio,” student Sophie Paradiso said.

“It’s such a great club to be a part of. I’ve met so many new people and I love how we get to play all the music we love while talking about all the things that we love. It’s definitely a confidence builder. It’s helped me so much with my public speaking and social skills,” Paradiso said.

“I love radio. I get to do some really fun shows with my friends, we get to play music. Radio definitely helps me with my social skills. I’ve always been shy but now I’m on the stage talking to pretty much everybody in the school,” student Emily Arbour said.

“I love it. We play music and do fun shows with each other. It definitely builds social skills and confidence overall. I did a show for International Women’s Day. We played all female artists and I talked about the struggles the female artists faced in their career,” student Olivia Lowe said.

“We rant and talk about our days, about studying for tests, but it’s usually a pretty happy and enjoyable show,” Lowe said.

“We talk about what’s trending in schools and social media. Since I’ve been a little kid, radio is something I’ve been interested in,” said Grade 12 student Kahaila Barber.

SMC Radio started with a soft launch in Oct. 2021 and officially launched in Dec. 2021.

“I was speaking with some of my students here at St. Mary’s about all the different clubs and extra-curriculars that we have, like the sports teams and all the other ways that our students get involved and I made a comment that it looks like the only thing we don't have is our own radio station,” said Mario Rocchetta, St. Mary’s College English and social sciences teacher.

“The students and I looked at each other and shortly thereafter the idea was born,” Rocchetta said.

After receiving approval from Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board administrators, a new iPad was purchased and, using existing microphones and speakers, SMC Radio was born.

SMC Radio is heard online through Stationhead and listeners can enjoy it on their laptops, iPads, and Android devices.

Broadcasts are both live and archived for on-demand listening.

Rocchetta said many students listen to SMC Radio in the evenings as well as through the school day.

Its programming consists of SMC Sports before school, a lunchtime show with music and talk from Monday to Friday, after school shows and weekend shows.

“These students are so dedicated. They are giving their own time for this,” Rocchetta said.

“It’s for students who want to have their voices heard, to play music while doing so, and to really appreciate the dynamics of being an on-air personality.”

“It was a group of five or six students that helped to get us off the ground and now, just over a year later, we have over 30 students involved with us. There are about 20 on air and another 10 behind the scenes curating playlists of music,” Rocchetta said.

Daily lunch broadcasts include approximately 20 minutes of music with some teacher-suggested talking points as themes for students to speak about on air, such as rant sessions and school activities.

There are movie reviews every Thursday.

Student rants include such topics as having a bad hair day and having to study for two tests to write the following day.

Students have been adding more country music to SMC Radio’s playlist, which also includes music from today, the 80s and 90s.

“To sit back and watch these students take this radio program and make it their own is truly rewarding and what’s so cool is that they’re broadcasting live, not just to our school community, but to a global community,” Rocchetta said.

“We’ve gotten feedback from people across Canada who are listening, across the U.S., even some people overseas who have listened on demand to some of the shows.”

Those listeners include St. Mary’s College alumni and people not even associated with the school, Rocchetta said.

“What's really rewarding as an educator is to watch the looks on my students' faces when they recognize for themselves the outreach that they have, how powerful their voices are, the power of the voice for the greater good, that they‘re putting themselves and their school out there.”

SMC Radio is broadcasting live this week during lunch in the school’s cafeteria and commons area for March Madness.

Broadcasts usually come from Rocchetta’s classroom or that of Kait Tappenden, St. Mary’s College music teacher.

“I came on this year because of the amount of students we have, to help with behind the scenes work, to keep track of what topics they are going to explore and music they are going to play,” Tappenden said.

“So many of these students, just this year, have grown,” she said. 

“We have on-air students and off-air students who do play list creation and they’re really passionate about the music that they’re putting together to play back. SMC Radio has given purpose to students who don’t fit in with sports or academically, or have a sense of belonging, but everyone listens to music, and these students get to share their opinions. It’s a place where they feel they belong.” 

“Watching those kids grow, from off air to on air, is huge for me and it’s huge for those kids because they’re going to learn so many skills they can carry in their lives and gain confidence,” Tappenden said.