| |
| Senior
Angela Marshall speaks during the Footbridge Forum radio program.
(Photo by Dan Menlove) |
|
Students
tackle issues
with unique radio program
Mention
fake IDs, dorm room drinking and a minor in possession and what do
you get?
The answer can be found in the student-led Footbridge Forum, a discussion
held one hour each month on University radio station 89.9 KBGA. The
program, which uses the theme “Cocktail Culture” this
semester, encourages student and community voices to be heard on a
topic that has affected everyone’s life in some way —
alcohol.
For some University students, going out to bars is their way to have
a good time. But wait, aren’t most UM students underage? That
doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore because of two words —
fake ID.
“It’s a game students learn to play. It’s too easy,”
said Ashley Sparano, a Footbridge Forum panel member and UM junior
in communication studies and business administration.
A system that’s become easy to figure out has become a problem
in the Missoula community, which is why the Forum made it the topic
this semester.
Bringing people together to solve local problems is the purpose of
the Forum, said Denise Dowling, assistant professor in the Department
of Radio/Television and Footbridge Forum adviser. “This semester
we are focusing on three areas: problems alcohol causes, what’s
the root and what do we do?” Dowling said.
The formula of combining student and community member ideas to nix
the alcohol problem is just what the Forum did. After the last broadcast
on Monday, Nov. 22, the students leading the Forum came away with
a long list of ideas to locally quell the problem of alcohol abuse
and underage drinking.
The Forum consisted of six members dedicated to sharing their opinions
through the radio show. Three UM students — Sparano; Oliver
Nordlund, a senior in history; and Andrew Levin, a senior in communication
studies — are representatives on the panel. One Big Sky High
School student, Chelsea Rayfield, was brought on to view the teenage
perspective. Two community members, Cheryl Minnick, a career counselor
at UM and mother of two teen girls, and Matt Anderson, a bartender
at Finn and Porter, were the town’s voices front and center
on the radio show. Listeners could hear them talk about everything
from their own experiences with alcohol to their thoughts on why it’s
such a big problem.
The program is led by Angela Marshall, a senior in broadcast journalism,
and Beth Saboe, a senior in broadcast journalism and political science.
Both Marshall and Saboe are producers of the Forum. Marshall also
serves as the show’s moderator. Each student believes the Forum
is a strong place for student involvement.
“Everyone has an opinion on everything,” Saboe said, “so
I like having the idea of a venue where everyone can contribute.”
Students are involved in every aspect of the show, from photojournalism
senior Dan Menlove creating the flashy advertisements to business
sophomore Chris Abbott and senior in radio/television Dustin Blanchet
running the mechanics of the show.
The show has been student-run since it first took root in fall 2003.
Former Associated Students of UM president and broadcast student Aaron
Flint pitched a proposal to the Kettering Foundation based in Kettering,
Ohio, for monetary aid to jump-start the program. The idea received
a response from Kettering and help in the form of more than cash —
workshops, held in Ohio, that helped the show reach the next level
of organization and popularity among listeners. Both Marshall and
Saboe traveled to Kettering with Dowling this past summer to seek
ways to revise the show.
“It’s really remarkable how the program has evolved and
changed in a year,” Dowling said.
One thing the radio program had going for it was interaction with
the community. Live phone calls and e-mails read on air all promote
the show as a forum for expression.
Those wishing to become involved with new seasons of the Forum can
visit the KBGA Web site at http://www.kbga.org
and click the Footbridge Forum link or e-mail footbridgeforum@kbga.org.
Applications for students and community members are taken every semester.
The new season of Footbridge Forum begins Monday, Feb. 28, 2005.
So what does it feel like to be at the conclusion of the show’s
semester-long run?
“For me, if I could put it into one moment,” Marshall
said, “it would be the official wrap- up at the end of the show
when we feel like our opinions have been voiced.”
— By Brianne Burrowes
|
