‘COOG RADIO PUT MY LIFE ON TRACK’ ‘COOG RADIO PUT MY LIFE ON TRACK’

How joining an on campus organization helped Cynthia gain skills and life long friendships she may never have had otherwise.

me for an internship (let alone the real world), but an okay mimic. Instead of hanging out in the studio with the other members of CoogTV, I found myself camping out in the lobby more and more, drawn to Coog Radio and the energy of the people laughing within.

They took their lunches at the table I sat at with my laptop. Small talk ensued for a few weeks. One day, a Filipino with a unicycle invited me to pho and coffee with him and some of the Coog Radio staff. I accepted, and a friendship was born.

The staff was kind, wholesome and pleasantly eclectic. It felt like I’d stepped into a movie with characters so diverse and well-rounded, they almost felt like industry plants. In our free time, we did things people only do in Smashing Pumpkins music videos. Singing on bridges at midnight, attending a ‘small house show’ turned rager cops had to break up, spontaneous road trips to Galveston or Austin, driving through the night in order to arrive back at the University on time for an 8 a.m.

The friendships gave me support, protection, and guidance as I navigated a world that was new to me. Stability, advice and reassurance made the academic aspect of my college experience a lot more manageable – to the point I had plenty of free time. Naturally, I wanted to spend said time with my friends, so I went ahead and joined Coog Radio too.

Right off the bat, I noticed the lack of gatekeeping. There was no favoritism towards seniority, experience or relationship status to whoever is in charge. I asked the then station director what it would take for me to one day have a radio show. He signed me up for a slot then and there, helped me fill out the paperwork and structure my ideas, and made time to train me on the proper use of studio equipment.

I started the following week, faithfully airing ‘Hey, There’s A Song For That’ weekly until the day I graduated. All I had to do was express interest in anything from advertising, DJing, audio editing or engineering, and someone would happily show me the ropes. The lack of toxicity soon stopped being suspicious and morphed into my new normal. But things really changed the day Fleetwood Mac came to town. been pouring a significant amount of my paycheck into live music. I brought up I was scavenging last-minute cash for a Fleetwood Mac show to the then web director, and she suggested I just cover the show instead. She said she could get me in for free.

Fun fact; in exchange for a promotional article and a concert review, Coog Radio will give student writers free tickets to a local show. This includes big acts at the Toyota Center as much as smaller ones at the Satellite Bar. Up until February 2019, I’d

From then on, it was rare that I had to pay for a show, and my portfolio grew like crazy as I added intricatelywritten narrative reviews of every concert I saw. I started bringing my camera to shows. Already an experienced photographer, I was surprised at how difficult it could be to shoot active people in dark rooms under unpredictable lights. But I learned on the job. Eventually, my work started to get noticed. managers at Warehouse Live and Satellite reached out to offer access to whatever show I pleased in exchange for some photos. A team member from Death Cab for Cutie invited me to their Houston show, then bought some of my photos for the band’s social media. A member of My Chemical Romance’s promotions team reached out to tell me about the band’s return months before it was announced to the public, contracting