Celebrating 16 years of UIC Radio

UIC Radio alumni and current students celebrate the station’s Sweet 16 Feb. 19 as part of Flames Homecoming activities. — Photo courtesy of UIC Radio

The UIC Radio family gathered Feb. 19 to celebrate the station’s Sweet 16. The campus radio station, which was established in 2000, welcomed back recent and past alumni as a part of Flames Homecoming activities.

“Our current staff show great passion in both deejaying and blogging, which is all thanks to the staff members that came before them,” Sonia Vavra, the current blog director of UIC Radio, said during her warm opening speech. “We have made great strides together as a station. What better reason to celebrate than that?”

Rhonda Laylo, general manager of the station, was happy to see alumni interact with current students.

“Our alumni have a great wealth of information and we’re very fortunate that they want to share that information with our current staff,” said Laylo, assistant program director of the Center for Student Involvement. “Having alumni invested in our current students is really the goal of the homecoming.”

During the evening, alumni caught up with old friends, met new members of the station and had a chance to take a tour of the newly renovated station and production studio.

“One of the things that make our college station different and unique and better than other college stations is that we really feel like we’re a family,” Laylo said. “Everyone’s really close. The students who aren’t here at the same time or the same year feel connected. They feel like folks that have come here in the past are still related to them.”

John Rose, on-air personality of the show “Hidden Treasures,” has been a member of UIC Radio since its inception. What’s kept him motivated to continue his show for 16 years, he said, is the ability to continuously discover new music, meet new artists and build friendships.

“At the end of every show, I always say, ‘There’s great music out there, you just
have to look for it,’” he said. “That’s why the show is called ‘Hidden Treasures.’ It’s the discovery and promotion of great new music, as well as great overlooked music from the past [that keeps me
going].”