"You’d have to be a bit schizophrenic to like all our programmes!"
Aarhus Student Radio has moved to the Student House and had a digital makeover with a new website, new programmes, podcasts and soon it’s very own app. But the radio station, which is made by students for students, is still niche.
"We’re live again in 30 seconds," says the producer as the two hosts make their way to the microphones, while the music fades out.
With a view of the morning rush hour on the ring road in Aarhus, a handful of students send live radio every morning between 8:00 - 9:00 from Monday to Friday. The daily current affairs programme is called Overblikket (Overview, ed.), and its jingle proclaims that it’s an “auditive goodie bag for your morning”, with news from in and around AU.
The programme is one of the new initiatives at Aarhus Student Radio, which began with the station having to move out of its studio at Dalgas Avenue a year ago after the sale of premises that previously housed the School of Engineering. Now the station sends its programmes from one of the rooms in the Student House. Kaspar Ottosen hopes the station can find a permanent address somewhere in the Student House.
"The location right at the centre of AU has really benefited us, as before we were pretty disconnected from life at the university.”
Aarhus Student Radio
- Aarhus Student Radio has been broadcasting since 1996. Its target audience comprises students at AU and the other educational institutions in Aarhus. Even though AU has students in Aarhus, Emdrup and Herning, the radio station focuses on Aarhus, because as a local radio station it is obliged to be locally anchored.
- The station only transmits on FM in and around Aarhus, but everyone can listen in on the Internet. The station operates as an association with support from The Danish Agency for Culture.
- The programme director and programme hosts work voluntarily. You can listen to the station on 98.7 FM weekdays between 8:00 - 9:00, and again between 19:00 - 22:00 weekday evenings, except Wednesday – or anytime at aasr.dk.
New programmes and new members
Since becoming programme director, Kaspar Ottosen and the rest of the board have been working on renewing the student radio.
"It was difficult filling out the 15 hours a week we were obliged to produce so we could receive our annual funding of 100,000 Danish kroner from the Danish Agency for Culture. So we began to develop ideas for new programmes and began looking for people to host them," says Kaspar.
This led to a local magazine programme on politics called #aarhuspol and the current affairs programme Overblikket. More programmes are on the way. The radio station has also got a new website, from where you can download all of its programmes as podcasts, and an app is also in the pipeline, says Kaspar. He is pleased to see that the number of members is on the rise again.
From survival to having fun
For a number of years, the student radio station broadcast live as a prelude to the Regatta and also sent radio from both the Spot and Northside Festivals. Kasper hopes the station can deliver more of this in the future.
"We cover the Newbees Festival here in the Student House, where we also are DJ and host, and we’re also working on a radio drama advent calendar from AU. While the last eighteen months to two years has been about survival, now there is room to have fun again, which we can also see from the level of interest in getting involved," says the programme director.
Focusing beyond the mainstream
The student radio will continue to look beyond the mainstream and present programmes you won’t find anywhere else, says Kasper.
"There’s not many other Danish radio stations where you can listen to Cambodian reggae, a complete programme of death metal and nothing else, get an update about what’s going on in the Far East, or listen to a Master’s thesis student’s reflections on writing a thesis."
"My goal is for us to have at least one programme that you want to listen to. You’d have to be a bit schizophrenic to like all our programmes as we have so many niche programmes," he says with a laugh.
Translated by Peter Lambourne