WBWC 88.3 The Sting Social Media Projects

Starting in Fall of 2024, our student board of directors at WBWC 88.3 The Sting did not have a specified Promotions Director. Because of this, I volunteered to join the social media team with two other board members. This team broke the content into general promotions (which we all share), sports, and music content. 

As music director, it made sense for me to create Instagram story graphics related to music, and I thought it could be a fun idea to update followers on weekly new music adds to the station. I created my own template on Canva that could be easily used each week, featuring the name of the song added, the artist, and a photo of the album cover. I tend to put the songs put into our heavy rotation first, then medium and light to follow. (Heavy, medium, and light refer to the number of plays a song gets per day.)

In addition to weekly new music adds, we have a weekly format show called “The Top 5 @ 5”, which is where the station plays the top five most requested songs of the week. There is also a “Close Call” song that is included that almost made the top five. I felt that there should be Instagram story graphics for this, as well, since this is a show that connects the audience to the disk jockeys in a more noticeable way. I wanted to make graphics that were similar to the new music adds design that I created, so I decided to inverse the colors but switch the black to brown. This is a subtle call-back to our Baldwin Wallace University connections, even though the station’s colors are mainly gold and black. This change was to add more color and to make album covers pop more.

I also had the fantastic opportunity to create and design the Spring 2025 Board of Directors post for the station’s Instagram page. I used Canva again for this, basing the cover page off of an available template and creating the individual board member pages completely from scratch. I wanted to give the post a “paper” theme as a subtle connection to written playlists, notes, and photos featured all throughout our air studio.

Starting in Fall of 2024, our student board of directors at WBWC 88.3 The Sting did not have a specified Promotions Director. Because of this, I volunteered to join the social media team with two other board members. This team broke the content into general promotions (which we all share), sports, and music content. 

Through the station, I have had some amazing opportunities to test out different skills, including interviewing artists in many different forms. First, I have been able to interview artists live on air during our special show “Locals Only,” which is when the station brings in an artist from Ohio to perform a short, live acoustic set followed by an interview and audience Q&A. I have run the artist interview and Q&A twice now, each time with a partner. 

In addition to the live interviews, I also have had the opportunity to interview two bands via Zoom. The one I am the most proud of is my interview with the band Fly By Midnight. Not only did I conduct this interview completely by myself over Zoom, but I also taught myself how to edit the video and audio footage to break it up into a 15 minute clip for our Instagram Reels, a 30 minute clip for our YouTube channel, and a five minute audio clip that was played on air during “The Top 5 @ 5” one week. To edit the footage, I taught myself how to use Clipchamp by Microsoft and continued my knowledge of Adobe Audition to finalize all the clips.

Lastly, I also came up with the idea to do mini-microphone videos where specialty show DJ hosts can talk about their show. In each video, I have them them say the name of the show, why they do the show, what they do on the show (what genre of music, show set up, etc.), and when it airs. These six Instagram Reels have been posted throughout the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semesters with the purpose of introducing listeners to the DJs behind the microphone. It also is a great opportunity for the DJs to promote their shows and let listeners know what all WBWC 88.3 The Sting offers for their listeners.

Through the station, I have had some amazing opportunities to test out different skills, including interviewing artists. In addition to interviewing artists digitally, I have been able to interview artists live on air during our special show “Locals Only,” which is when the station brings in an artist from Ohio to perform a short, live acoustic set followed by an interview and audience Q&A. I have run the artist interview and Q&A twice now, each time with a partner. 

Additionally, I have been able to interview customers at The Current Year Retro, a local record store, for Record Store Day. This is a multi-year collaboration with 88.3 The Sting and The Current Year Retro. Being able to support each other through these fun social media videos for customers to learn more about the small business, as well as hear about new music releases!