A day in the life of a Radio DePaulian: a photo essay

I spent this afternoon with Delmy Cabrera, a senior here at DePaul. As a Radio, TV and Film major, she has been very involved with Radio DePaul since she was a freshman. She worked her way up from disc jockey as a freshman, to assistant manager as a sophomore to manager as a junior. For her last year, she is working on odds and ends for the station (and currently applying for graduate schools).

"But what I really want to do [after I graduate]?" She confesses, "What I really want to do is take a break. I'd like to have a few months to myself."





Cabrera walks up the steps at U-Hall and down into the basement to enter the radio station. She works there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in between classes.



Part of Cabrera's job at the station is to make sure all the equipment is set up correctly. As soon as she got in, she started checking the mics, soundboards, and stereo settings.



Here, Delmy works in the News Room. She organized the clutter, adjusted the sound settings for recordings, and arranged files on the News Room computer's desktop. Audio news clips that are played throughout the day on Radio DePaul are recorded here.



As the "de facto web master" for http://radio.depaul.edu, Cabrera spends a couple hours a week updating the on-air schedule and making other necessary adjustments to the site. She has a basic understanding of manipulating HTML code (which she learned in class here at DePaul), but admits that she couldn't start from scratch.



In the production room, Cabrera starts cutting audio files for radio spots with Adobe Audition. The station will use these next quarter with voice overs.



Here, Cabrera works on e-mail correspondence and has a venting session with Natalie Marsh, a junior and News Director at Radio DePaul. Cabrera tells me how important communication is at Radio DePaul: "One thing I've learned is that if you want to reach an understanding with someone, you have to just sit down with them and show them exactly where you're coming from."