Meeting in English teacher Chris Proctor’s room every Friday, a small group of students are diligently conceiving plans and proposals to create Paly’s own radio station, which plans to air a demo show in early April.

“We are really passionate about radio,” junior Arjun Singh said. “We want to incorporate something cool and new into the Paly community. I think there is so much potential to radio in Paly. It is a fun thing to do, and it is a great broadcast version of journalism.”

According to Singh, the radio station will host a variety of shows, just like any other radio station. Some potential topics include news, review shows, talk shows, interviews, sports, music, and perhaps even tutor shows. The station will be transmitted through online streaming, which means that shows will often be prerecorded and available for download, similar to podcasts. Singh says that online streaming does not fall under tedious regular radio regulations by the Federal Communications Commission.

Singh’s friend, junior Brendan Erickson, is perhaps the most experienced member of the Paly radio team and originally initiated the idea. Erickson has been a DJ at Stanford’s KCSU radio station since his sophomore year in high school when his father asked Erickson to try the role of a DJ with him. Soon afterwards, Erickson brought his friends along with him to host shows in the quiet morning hours and started to envision a radio station at Paly. He calls this Paly radio project “KCSU’s younger sibling.”

Erickson wants Paly radio to closely resemble a professional radio station. Erickson hopes that, as the radio community grows, various students not on the Paly radio staff will be able to host the show as well.

“We will organize shows by time slots, where a limited number people get their position to broadcast,” Erickson said. “We will need to have a initiation class, but not a ‘class’ class.”

Currently, the group is working on a proposal to the administration for the approval of hosting a radio station in the Paly community.

“It’s not hard to link to The Paly Voice a random radio station online, but we want this to be officially be part of the Paly community,” Singh said.

The proposal will include a formal statement to the administration, as well as content regulation rules and budget proposals. Erickson says that the budget, which, at the minimum, will cover a computer and a microphone, is the least of their worries, as the costs are cheap and affordable even if the administration does not approve it. The final draft of the proposal will be finished sometime around Spring Break and will be sent to the administration after Spring Break for approval.

Proctor is guiding much of Paly radio’s detailed planning processes. Erickson says that Proctor pushed him to seriously consider the creation of a radio program for Paly when Erickson initiated the idea.

“It was more of me saying, ‘I want to do this’, and him [Proctor] saying, ‘Go for it; you got my support, contact these people, and I’ll help you out in the process,'” Erickson said.

Singh greatly appreciates the effort Proctor has put into this program.

“Mr. Proctor is one of the most helpful people in school,” Singh said. “He is one of the backbones of the idea. He came to Brendan and I and sat us down and organized things. He is not one of those teachers who say, ‘Yeah, sure, use my room for whatever.’ He actually wants to be involved and be part of it all.”

Right now, many students at Paly are interested in having a radio station, according to junior Sarah Henderson. Henderson points out there are many people in the Facebook “Paly Radio” group and while many students have already expressed interested in participating in the program. However, only a few have been attending the meetings, which are held on Fridays at lunch in Room 217, that plan out the framework of the radio station.

“I’d strongly suggest for anyone who is interested to show up at the club,” Henderson said.

The demo show is projected to premiere in early April.

“We’ll start out slow,” Erickson said. “We’re going to have a demo show probably around April, so it will last a week just with us and some other friends, but once they get that this is a serious thing, I’m sure that they will want to join in.”