New ESF Radio set to grow student voices with April launch
ESF Radio, a student-run radio station, plans to stream music, political podcasts and comment on stories submitted by ESF students. They don’t have a set start date yet, but they want to focus on promoting local bands. Collin Snyder | Staff Photographer
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As neighboring campuses, SUNY ESF and Syracuse University share plenty of clubs and organizations. But some ESF students have noticed a lack of ESF-specific groups.
ESF Radio is trying to change that.
The student-run radio will be an ESF-focused, online station run out of Marshall Hall. Its stream will be accessible through a link on the station’s Instagram and QR codes posted around campus. It’ll be active from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday, and will also be broadcasted through large speakers in Trailhead Cafe inside ESF’s Moon Library.
“Students have such an inspiration to create content,” Marco Sciortino, ESF senior and radio founder, said. “Some people just need the motivation to step out there and release any thoughts or expressions about the campus, or their thoughts about what’s going on in the world.”
The station in Marshall Hall is complete with a soundboard to mix audio and CDs that ESF students donated for the broadcasts.
Maintaining a separate identity from SU is crucial for some ESF students, like Michael Vallarta, a junior who said the school needs more tailored media programming.
“It’s a very specialized school, and a lot of the people who come into the school have a lot of the same interests,” Vallarta said. “I feel like it’s a very distinct demographic compared to SU.”
Collin Snyder | Staff Photographer
ESF Radio’s stream will be accessible through a link on the student-run radio station’s Instagram and QR codes posted around campus. It will also be broadcasted through large speakers in Trailhead Cafe inside ESF’s Moon Library.
The student-run radio will be an ESF-focused, online station run out of Marshall Hall. Its stream will be accessible through a link on the station’s Instagram and QR codes posted around campus. It’ll be active from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday, and will also be broadcasted through large speakers in Trailhead Cafe inside ESF’s Moon Library.
“Students have such an inspiration to create content,” Marco Sciortino, ESF senior and radio founder, said. “Some people just need the motivation to step out there and release any thoughts or expressions about the campus, or their thoughts about what’s going on in the world.”
The station in Marshall Hall is complete with a soundboard to mix audio and CDs that ESF students donated for the broadcasts.
Maintaining a separate identity from SU is crucial for some ESF students, like Michael Vallarta, a junior who said the school needs more tailored media programming.
“It’s a very specialized school, and a lot of the people who come into the school have a lot of the same interests,” Vallarta said. “I feel like it’s a very distinct demographic compared to SU.”
The station was partially inspired by Sciortino’s sister, who was involved in a tune-in radio in high school that he often listened to. Last year, he recruited fellow ESF senior Izze Modell-Kowalski for the project and they began looking into the logistics of setting up their own station on campus.
Collin Snyder | Staff Photographer
ESF Radio, an ESF-focused, student-run radio station, will be active from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday. Each radio DJ will have an hour slot to fill with whatever programming they want.
They quickly realized a tune-in radio was impractical since they would need an antenna — and a lawyer. They decided to switch gears to an online radio set up through radio.co, a website that broadcasts from the cloud.
The station received funding from ESF last year and the organizers also fundraised in the fall 2024 semester. Once they had enough money, Sciortino and Modell-Kowalski procured the radio station just before spring break, and plan to begin broadcasting in April.
Each radio DJ will have an hour slot to fill with whatever programming they want. Some DJs plan to stream music, while others hope to host political podcasts or comment on stories submitted by ESF students.
The station allows DJs to check out mics and other equipment from the studio and take them around campus to capture audio for their segments.
“Busy college students don’t really have the time to sit down and have a three-hour long meeting just to record,” Sciortino said. “I thought it would be great for people to take it on their personal time and record what they need.”
The station will then mix the audio files DJs submit with a soundboard before broadcasting them.
Modell-Kowalski was involved with SU’s WERW student radio station after she transferred to ESF, but had to stop due to other time commitments. Now, she’s excited to set up a station that specifically caters to her school.
“I think that a lot of people at ESF don’t align with the policies or views that SU has,” Modell-Kowalski said. “It is important that the individuals here remain individual.”
She envisions the station as more focused on podcasts than music, and different from SU media organizations because of ESF’s distinct campus culture.
Though there isn’t a set start date for the station yet, the organizers do want to focus on promoting local bands and plan to cover Quadstock, an ESF music festival that happens during the university’s Earth Week in late April.
“I want it to be everything. I just want it to be the voice of the students,” Modell-Kowalski said.
