HoustonPBS UH Moment: COOG Radio Discovers New Music and On-Air Talent

University of Houston students have their own radio station – COOG Radio. Launched in 2011, COOG Radio streams 24 hours a day and has become a training ground for up-and-coming broadcasters. UH students do everything — COOG Radio is UH’s first and only student-run, online radio station.  

“We are using COOG Radio as a way of letting students develop their voice, promote themselves and really get a feel for what it’s like to work in radio,” said Conner Clifton, COOG Radio director and one of its co-founders. “The students who come in here will get a feel of what it’s like to be a DJ.”

Clifton, along with fellow co-founders Matt Womack and Markley Rogers, launched the station in late August 2011 after two years of planning. Student DJs host their own 2-hour shows, honing their on-air skills and learning how to use the commercial equipment.

“Definitely it’s an educational tool for all of our DJ’s,” said Sophia Straus, a UH senior and the station’s operations director. “They get exposure to equipment they wouldn’t normally see. I am in an audio production class and we are reading about different kinds of microphones, and then you go in to the station and you actually see them. You are working with them, and it’s a completely different experience." 

Straus said it’s one thing to read about radio, but it’s a completely new experience to actually learn a craft, while you are streaming live to listeners.

“It’s something you cannot learn in a classroom.”

COOG Radio streams live, around the clock at http://www.coogradio.com/


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