Radio DePaul’s Oscars Night
By Megan Stephenson
On Sunday February 24th 2019 the 91st annual Oscars was held in Hollywood, California. Over a thousand miles away, in the basement of the University Hall dorm of DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, a small group of students were getting ready for this big event. These students are the crew members of Radio DePaul, the campus’s radio station. They were getting ready to broadcast the event over the airwaves by discussing what was going to happen and their predictions for the night. My friend and suite-mate, Holly Jenvey, is part of Radio DePaul, hosting a short segment called Pocket News every Thursday at five. This night was when she would go on air with others and start talking about the Oscars Ceremony. The radio had advertised this event as a big night, where the crew members would dress up in their Oscars best, the room would be decorated, and where snacks and (non-alcoholic) drinks would be served. I was lucky enough to be able to attend and take pictures and spend the evening with them.
I got dressed up myself, in a sparkly gray dress and floral earrings. I walked down to the basement of University Hall with Holly, and we were greeted with streamers in front of the Radio DePaul doors. They had laid down a red carpet, they had decorated the already over saturated room and there was a table of sparkling cider and leftover Halloween candy in the corner. Holly introduced me to her coworkers: Marty, a red headed man with glasses who was the executive of the ordeal; Ty, a tall man in a suit who would show me around the small station; Halle, a nice girl with brown hair, glasses and a maxi dress. Inside the recording booth they already had someone talking, but I think about something other than the Oscars. I sat down and started talking to these people. They told me a little about themselves and I bonded with Halle over our shared love of Law & Order: SVU. The radio people were warm and welcoming, and my initial nervousness about intruding on a tight knit group faded. Sitting on the soft brown sofa with the Oscars red carpet broadcast on the computer screen, I asked Halle about her experience working for Radio DePaul.
“How long have you been working for Radio DePaul?” I asked her. She thought about it for a second.
“Since Freshman year, so three years now,” she told me. “I’m a Media and Cinema Studies major, so unrelated to Journalism, but I saw the booth at the Involvement fair and it looked really cool and so I joined. I started doing the news, and then last year I was news director,” she continues as the rest of the crew members scramble around trying to put everything together. “Now this year I’m the social media director.” The social media director is tasked with advertising the shows to the general public, by using Instagram, facebook and twitter to get the message out. Having followed the Radio DePaul instagram account I had heard about this event long before Holly told me we needed to go dress shopping to find her an Oscar’s broadcast worthy outfit.
“So of course, the obligatory question of what is the most rewarding part of Radio DePaul?” I asked. Halle and Holly laughed, looking at each other.
“Ooh there’s so many!” she answered. “I think my favorite thing is meeting so many amazing people. Because there are so many cool people who work here so I’m constantly meeting people. People come in to do there show and we’re talking about stuff-”
“Like we were just talking about SVU,” I interrupted.
“Yeah, like people come in as guests and I meet so many cool amazing people and that’s definitely a thing that I love the most,” she continued.
“And of course, what’s the worst part about Radio DePaul?” I asked and she burst out laughing. Probably not a question that gets asked every day. In interviews it’s always about the great things that happen, and how fun and good of an experience it can be. But I was curious as to what about Radio DePaul annoys her.“There’s not a lot actually,” she said in sincerity. “I think the only thing that grinds my gears is people who come in to do their show and then leave. There’s so many people who work here who don’t socialize. It makes it hard when we try to organize things and then people don’t show up. I wish that there were people who are a little bit more involved like I am.” I could see Holly nodding silently to that statement.
“Like when we have meetings, I’m one of the only people who attends,” she said. Holly has a very soothing voice that is perfect for Radio. She is a Philosophy major who has an interest in journalism and broadcast. She found Radio DePaul in September of 2018, at the beginning of her Freshman year. And the location made the gig even easier, as Holly resides in University Hall. She’s made lots of connections and friendship because of the radio station.
“Ok so Holly, what’s the best part about working here?” I asked her. She smiled.
“I love the family atmosphere,” she replied. “There’s a huge comradery. They do lots of fun events and dress up and talk and have a good time. It’s not nerve-wracking even though you think it would be.” I could tell that the red carpet was starting to wrap up on the TV and that soon the actual Radio DePaul broadcast would commence.
“So can you tell me a little bit about what’s going to be discussed tonight?” I asked her.
“So basically we’re gonna talk about what’s gonna be covered on the Oscars. We’re going to go into the production elements such as acting, the directing, basically what all the awards are up for and then we go in depth about what each movie is. Then we give our opinions and we make predictions on who is going to win,” she explained. Soon after our little interview, they all went into the sound booth and started their broadcast. I wasn’t allowed in the room, so I sat outside of it on the couch with a digital camera and a phone at 30%.
Suddenly the atmosphere changed, and I felt alone. I looked around the room, taking pictures of the walls that were covered in paintings. The decorations done for the Oscars were really nice and interesting. There were pictures of the nominees faces glued onto stars, with Lady Gaga on the top, the clear favorite of the Radio DePaul crew. There was another (un-nominated) celebrity with some pictures on the wall, Timothee Chalamet. I could see into the room that they were having a conversation, most likely talking about who all the nominees were and their picks for best actress, best directing, best costume design, etc. There was a pile of papers on the coffee table, with a list of all the awards and the nominees. We were able to fill out the sheet, showing who we wanted to win. Looking down the list of movies and I realized that I had hardly seen any of them. It made it hard to decide what movie I thought should win.
Though my phone battery was dying I did get a text from my friend Nathalie Hoste, who was also a member of Radio DePaul. She was done with her sorority meeting, so I told her to please come down to Radio DePaul and keep me company while Holly and Halle were in the sound booth, doing their job. Nathalie agreed, with the condition that she could Uber Eats some McDonald’s to the Radio DePaul room. When she got her food we went back to the radio station, where they were currently discussing their favorite movie of the night.
Nathalie Hoste does work at Radio DePaul, doing Pocket News with Holly on Thursdays at 5 pm. She had just started in January because Holly invited her. Nathalie is a journalism major with a focus in broadcast journalism, so Radio DePaul is the perfect fit for her. Sitting on the floor of the basement room, I asked her some questions about her experience at the radio station. As I started the interview, Holly’s part of the broadcast was over and they were switching to new people to talk about a different part of the Oscars. Holly came to sit with us.
“What is your favorite part about working at Radio DePaul?” I asked her. Her answered sounded suspiciously similar to that of others.
“The people,” she said. “We’re all work together really well. And everyone is super understanding.” At least I can know that the Radio DePaul crew is a big happy family.
“And the worst part?” I asked. Without missing a beat she says: “Holly. No I’m kidding,” she says quickly. Holly in the background fakes being offended. “The coffee, the coffee is the actual worst,” Nathalie replies in all honesty. Looking at the coffee machine in the corner, I can understand why she would say that.
“So what did you just do?” I asked Holly.
“I brought in the welcoming and then we all talked about acting,” she replied. “Such as who do we think is going to win the categories. It was a lot of fun. We all have similar and different opinions and we’re all excited to see who gets the award.”
“So it’s a prediction broadcast?”
“We’re basically doing predictions,” she said.
The night was still young, but the party was in full swing. We drank sparkling grape juice out of plastic champagne flutes and talked about who we thought would win. Now that Holly and Nathalie were there I felt less alone, and I felt more comfortable in the situation. There were still some people in the sound booth, but we weren’t listening to their broadcast. The Oscars was in full swing, and the TV was on showing the Oscars coverage. The Radio crew was listening to it as well, and broadcasting the news thirty seconds after the events went down. The atmosphere was cheery and excited. There were more people who had come in, ready to do the later parts of the broadcast but no one introduced me to them so I couldn’t tell you their names. Some people were sitting on the couch, some were standing and drinking.
The evening went extremely well, with a smooth broadcast of all the Oscar wins. I got the idea to document this night for my project because Holly and Nathalie told me about the radio DePaul station and how much they enjoyed working at it, but I had never been into the room or even heard one of the broadcasts. Holly said all I needed to do was email their director if I could visit, as they have a strict guest policy. I got an okay from their director and so it was great to be invited into their community and partake in the evening’s festivities with open arms and a smile. I left the event with a more positive view of the radio station and a new found desire to turn on the radio and listen to the broadcasts that they put so much effort into. I learned that Radio DePaul is a great organization with a strong community that is always looking to make outsiders feel comfortable.
