Noah Hutton: Putting Professors on the Airwaves

Noah Hutton, a recently established radio DJ, brings perspective to the lives of professors on his college campus. He is a member of the class of 2009 at Wesleyan University.

What is the name of your radio show?

'The Faculty Lounge" on WESU Middletown 88.1fm.

What training did you go through to become a radio host? How long did it take to launch the show?

I trained for one semester my freshman year at Wesleyan to become a DJ-- I then hosted a music show for 2 years before launching The Faculty Lounge this year along with my friend and fellow DJ Jeremy Finch, and I currently serve as the Vice President of the station.

Where is it based? How often do you air?

We're based in Middletown, CT and we air every Friday at 1 p.m.

What are the goals of your show?

The goal of the show is to highlight the scholarly work of Wesleyan professors, to talk about their books, and to engage in informal conversation. We sit down with a different professor every week for a one-on-one, NPR-styled interview. We then set aside a portion of the program for a recap of recent lectures, readings, and any other special events on the Wesleyan campus in the past week. In all, the point of the show is to generate a well-produced and interesting program that can appeal to listeners in the Wesleyan/Middletown arena and beyond. We hope to create podcasts that can be downloaded and perhaps syndicated on other radio stations.

What is an example discussion topic or what type of music genre does your show focus on?

Discussion is based on whatever aspect of a professor's work we want to highlight-- on our first program we had the director for the Center for African American Studies and Professor of Art History at Wesleyan University, Peter Mark-- we talked about everything from his recent book on West African architecture to his opinion on the ongoing conflict in Kenya. We also have the professors bring in some musical selections of their own to play during our scheduled breaks.

Do you plan to expand upon work within the radio broadcast industry after graduating or is this simply something for the college years?

I don't have a plan yet, but I'm enjoying it for now and I wouldn't mind if it continued.

What motivates you to work on an established project such as this when you've already got a busy schedule typical of any college student?

It feels great to provide a resource for both the University and the public at large that is, hopefully, both educational and entertaining. I enjoy working on the production end of things and am motivated to turn out the highest quality program possible every week. It seems just as important and worthwhile as any classwork I'm doing, so although it is time consuming, I look at it as an aspect of my time at college that I wouldn't sacrifice for anything else.

For more information on Noah and to tune into his show check out http://www.wesufm.org/