By Brandon Cortés
Features Editor
On the second floor of the Adanti Student Center, tucked behind racks of equipment and walls lined with posters, the university’s radio club, WSIN, hums with life. The lights on the soundboard flicker as members lean into microphones, playlists roll through speakers and the infamous green couch—threadbare but legendary—hosts students who spend more time in the station than in their dorms.
For these students, Radio Club is more than an extracurricular. It is a second home.
The club has been around in some form since the 1990s, but the pandemic nearly silenced it. After COVID-19, membership dwindled, meetings fizzled, and the station faded into the background. The revival came when a new general manager, Mahogany Rich, studio art major, a junior stepped in and members decided to rebuild.
“We really started fresh,” Rich said. “When I joined, it was quiet. Meetings were late, energy was low, and the space wasn’t being used to its potential. I didn’t know much at first, but with help from everyone else, we brought it back to life.”
That rebirth gave students Gerryki Williams, a communications major, junior, a place to thrive. Williams has been part of the club since his freshman year and has held roles ranging from PR Manager to Webmaster, even temporarily stepping in as acting General Manager sometimes.
“I just love music,” Williams said. “Once I found out there was a radio station on campus, I wanted to get my playlists on the air. It pushed me to dig deeper, find new stuff, and share it with the campus body.”
Williams, who has a concentration in film, Television and Media Production, also uses the station as a training ground for technical skills. He has edited station IDs, experimented with sound engineering and learned the ins and outs of the board that controls the studio’s broadcast.
“It gives me experience I can carry into film editing and production,” Williams said. “It’s fun, but it’s also building my future.”
What sets the Radio Club apart is not just the programming—it is the culture. The studio is as much a hangout as it is a workplace. Students drift in to play video games on the club’s PlayStation or Xbox, debate music genres, or crash on the green couch after a long day of classes.
“For me, it’s bigger than music,” Jaylon Sandy, Psychology major, Junior said. “This is like a second family. We bonded over music, but it goes farther than that. We go to shows together, hang out outside the station—it’s its own culture.”
That culture spills into the wider New Haven music scene. Club members regularly attend local pop-punk and rap shows, repost band events on social media, and host interviews with artists. The club plans to strengthen those ties by collaborating with local bands, organizing performances, and one day hosting its own shows like those at peer schools University of Connecticut and Yale University.
The programming itself is eclectic. Members produce podcasts on everything from film reviews to interviews with local talent. Weekly meetings often feature music-themed activities, from playlist nights to experimental watch parties. One upcoming event will screen “The Wizard of Oz” synced with Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon”—a classic mashup rumored to align perfectly.
“It’s about creating experiences,” Williams said. “We want people to come in, listen, and discover something new.”
Learning the ropes is part of the fun. New members are not handed manuals—they are encouraged to experiment. The equipment is sophisticated, with stabilizers, CPUs and a main board that controls the studio’s sound. Much of the knowledge comes from tinkering, trial and error, or learning from older members.
“It’s community-driven,” said Julio Merced, junior majoring in finance. “Someone shows you how to run a channel, you try it, and eventually, you teach the next person.”
For newcomers, joining is simple. Students can walk in during meetings held every Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., sign up for a slot, or even pitch their own show. Some stick around for years; others pop in for a single broadcast. Either way, the door is open.
That openness is what keeps Radio Club buzzing. On any given day, you might find a member prepping a themed playlist, another working on production edits, and a group of friends lounging in the back, Skate 3 pulled up on the TV screen. The sounds bleed together: laughter, beats, chatter, static.
The club’s ambitions are growing. Members hope to establish a 24-hour broadcast schedule with rotating genres and shows, making the station a constant presence on campus. They envision more collaborations, more events, and more reasons for students to treat the studio not just as a station, but as a hub for creativity and connection.
For now, Radio Club remains exactly what it needs to be: a place where students gather, share their love of music, and build friendships that last beyond the broadcast. Or, as Sandy puts it: “You walk in for the music—but you stay for the people.”
