By Jess Mutter

This winter WETS’s student radio, “The EDGE,” is breaking loose.

The station, housed in the belly of Warf-Pickel Hall and fed across the campus’s closed-circuit cable system, will be enjoying some newly acquired elbow-room as it launches its second home and a streaming Internet station.

The transition comes as part of a move to further provide students the experience of a professional radio environment. The EDGE’s new home, EDGEradioalternative.com, came from the staff’s own pockets.

Lexi Eller, graduate manager at the EDGE, recounts the decision.

“I went around asked everyone and in five minutes I had the money,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a lot better for students trying to find jobs. Now employers can pull your show up at this time and on this day. It will also be easier to make air checks and CDs from now on.”

The station currently airs on Campus Channel 13 and is available exclusively on campus grounds. The new feed will host the EDGE’s cast of student DJs and the station’s expanding specialty programs.

This semester the EDGE has hosted the nostalgia-driven RETRO FLASH and the independent-rock and hip-hop programs, the L.I.M.E. and Pre-Game.

“We’re increasing our listenership from people who live in the dorms, which is about 2500, to around 14,000,” said Tom Headley, director of the Radio, Television and Film Program.

With their accessibility expanding, the position the EDGE has in connecting and informing the campus could grow, suggests Daniel Santiago, chief engineer in the Broadcasting Department.

Moving to mobile devices has primed the station to handle student informational services.

“Radio is in the information business,” he said.

Station DJs are required to broadcast five breaks every hour, many of which rotate between student events, public service announcements, fundraisers, weather and the occasional emergency alert. On Nov. 10 the station broadcast an emergency alert following a campus carjacking.

Many DJs are on loan from introductory broadcast courses. Every semester roughly 50 new DJs walk through the doors of the station and into two-hour programs to sharpen their skills.

“It’s helped me censor myself,” said Ian Steidle, a sophomore in mass communications. “I don’t tell bad jokes anymore.”

The stream will be the first time since the station’s inception in the ‘70s that not only students and faculty, but also the public can interact with the EDGE on a broad scale.

The station had sought a new signal for years but was often deterred by staggering costs and failed negotiations.

“It’s important that the students have a voice,” said Headley, who originally appealed for an ETSU non-commercial FM station for the student body.

“I hope it brings more awareness to the department. I know a lot of people say, ‘I didn’t know broadcasting was an option’ or ‘I didn’t know we had a campus radio station’,” said Eller.

“We’re not a small group, but we are smaller than other majors. But that makes us closer.”

The new site officially launches Jan.5 in preparation of the forthcoming semester. Until then the stream is available on the EDGE home page and also on ETSU’s home page under podcasts.

So don’t forget to bookmark your local student radio station before you switch off and pack up for the semester. You may not recognize it the next time you see it.