College Radio Thrives with Diversity

By Asia Daggs
Assistant Web Content Manager

Here at KTSW, we love to honor the diversity in our unity. We come from all over the map, raised within different backgrounds and cultures and we all have different interests and skills to bring to the table. Our radio station is home to multiple departments and we have the most creative, coolest people working in each one of them. With College Radio Day finally here, we decided to highlight some of the unique attributes we have on currently have on staff.

Each person has their own personal, exclusive outlook on the world around them and that is exactly what makes our diversity what it is. Everything we experience can turn into a longterm inspiration that may alter or amp up our perceptions and behavior towards life. To be able to get past the surface of KTSW’s overall presence, I caught up with a few of our members to get a better understanding into the base of their innovativeness.

First, I got in touch with Ms. Kendra Sells to see what was going on in her creative capacity. She  is working for both our music and programming department, where she serves as a journalist and a host of The Cypher. Sells first applied to be a hip hop director to help the move along the process of incorporating more hip hop into our station. She explained to me how it is a radio station’s job to reach out to the entire community and their interests.

“There are a lot of things going on in hip hop; it is the other side of radio,” Sells exclaimed.

Sells grew up listening to a lot of soul and acapella gospel, but as she got older she broadened her music taste, so now her inspirations lie everywhere.

“I just love music,” Sells said, when describing her approach. “I can be playing that fire, but still be chilling at the same time.” She compared her show’s vibe to be similar to Sway in the Morning and the Breakfast Club to visualize her prolific contributions to our multi-platform station.

Next on the list is music journalist and videographer, Lilliana Rivera. She was a part of the very first team of the multimedia department, and has grown to call it a home.

“I like video and creating heavy content,” Rivera said. “Finding an outlet where I could do both was great.”

When asked about where she pulls her creativity from, Rivera explained that she likes to blame it on the several environments she has soaked in. She was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, later moved towards the Valley in Texas and then onto El Paso where she would graduate high school from.

“Each environment gave me something new,” Rivera said. She loves creating due to its rewarding experience and told me she cannot wait for next semester at KTSW.

In college radio, the distinct mindsets we have in each department is what sets up the creativity that shows in our work. I wish I could get you all a look into each of our staff member’s heads, because we are all that cool and unique. However, by that point, you would be reading a book.

Be sure to tune into KTSW 89.9 for 24 hour live coverage of College Radio Day.

Featured image by Marlene Núñez .