Student radio broadcasts in English
Featuring famed musicians and academicians, IDC station is breaking new grounds and quickly forming a name for itself
Radio programming in Spanish, English and Hebrew set a new station apart from the rest. Featuring famed musicians and academicians after only a month of broadcasting, this station is breaking new grounds and quickly forming a name for itself.
This past month, the Sammy Ofer School of Communications in conjunction with the Raphael Recanati International School launched a website featuring Spanish, English and Hebrew programming for a unique radio station.
The channel, IDC Radio 106.4 FM, is operated by students and staff from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and is under the educational radio of Israel Radio. Offering a range of academic panels, sports, humor, and news among other topics, the channel seeks to enlighten listeners.
'When you fall in love with it you just do it'. IDC Radio (Photo: Idit Narkis)
"We have programming on bars, sex, drugs (without the drugs of course) and rock and roll, and then we have Amnon Rubenstein - so there's light and academic. We promise that it will always be intelligent whether it's light or hard core," Guy Eitingon, director of content development and business initiatives, told Ynetnews.
With this objective in mind, the students and staff work together to bring to fruition shows such as, "I-Spy," the stations most highly rated show in English, in which five American girls discuss their perspectives on life in Israel, their trials and anecdotal language accidents all with a wry sense of humor. Or their Spanish programming, "2 x 2", featuring one Hebrew and one Spanish speaking host playing off the language barrier as they focus on Spanish and Latin American culture and music.
The Spanish host's alter ego Wilson el Kriminal, performs on the show with his guitar playing Reggaeton. The Israeli-Spanish fusion duo has interviewed artists with Latin American, Chava Rosenberg and Spanish influence, David Broza. The Spanish and English programming are played on Saturday to serve as a model for an "International Saturday" to counter other radio stations programming centered on "Shabbat Ivrit" - the Hebrew Shabbat.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak and student Guri Avner Kalev (Photo: Idit Narkis)
The station does not steer away from politics or hard hitting news either. In fact quite the opposite, with a vast array of student perspectives from upwards of 70 countries in the B.A. and M.A. programs in English at the IDC; the channel has hosted shows on Jewish Inspiration as seen through a Chinese girl's eyes as well as Christian Arabs.
President of IDC radio, Uriel Reichman told the students and staff that when addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict they should have a non-defeatist attitude, saying "don't be kooters" (don't whine and nag). Rather, the station's approach is to debate and discuss, but in the end propose possible solutions.
IDC radio runs commercial-free on a very low budget, according to Eitingon. The broadcasts are part of the academic curriculum and all the hosts and guests volunteer their time.
Chief Editor and Director of Programming Ayelet Triest says, "Everyone is just enthusiastic about it and I think everyone falls in love with it. I think that's what's special about radio - when you fall in love with it you just do it. We have students who have graduated and they are still coming, a year and a half later they are still here."
