A New Swift Radio Has Come to KCI Airwaves

By: Sydney Edwards

Swift Radio is introducing a new “podcast-esque” twist on the classic KCI morning radio experience, and as a member of Swift Radio myself, I reached out to Mark Chinchilla and Ricardo Guzman, two of the hosts, to learn more about why this is being introduced. Here’s what they had to say:

Q - Why do you think the new podcast section is a good idea that the school will enjoy?

Mark: “I personally felt like swift radio every morning was just kind of boring and lots would agree. The simple introduction, then the songs, O'Canada and land acknowledgment, then a quick goodbye everyday… It was just really repetitive and boring. So we put a little flare into our intros and outros whenever introducing songs, and we also started to do these live. Slowly but surely we just talked more and more so we just added an entire 1-2 minute talking session where we talk about whatever just to entertain and not go through the same old boring stuff everyday.”

These changes are sure to bring about controversy, but Mark seems quite confident in this change. Of course, they also mentioned that the podcast segment wouldn’t necessarily be something that would happen every day -- only if they had an idea for what to talk about that morning.

Q - What sparked the idea in your mind?

Ricardo: “The idea didn't really "spark", it took a while to develop throughout swift radio last year as we started to add a little more flare to our song introductions. Once we started doing them live, it truly felt like a radio station playing songs and reporting news, so the idea of a minute talk show like most radio stations have came up and slowly but surely we got it all figured out, and even added a cool new intro with the whole "you're listening to 185.5 FM, Swift Radio" thing, which 185.5 is a reference to 1855, the year the school was founded.

Q - What else are you trying to do to improve the overall experience?

Mark: “We plan on adding variations to the music, playing a diverse set of genres and languages and all kinds of music from all over the world. Supporting small indie artists is definitely something I've been trying to do with this as well. Making Swift Radio as "radio-like" as possible, with the new intro and little radio jingles I made, it truly feels like a real radio station but another plan is modifying those little intros.. maybe for each host they have their own unique jingle with their own voice and stuff but we'll see what the future will hold for now.”

Overall, the students over at Swift Radio seem determined to do whatever they can to improve the experience as much as possible while still keeping Swift Radio worthy of its title. The podcast change won’t always be the same, since that’s what the radio is all about. It sounds like Swift Radio will only keep growing and improving as a whole.