Media Participation Project-Catalina Mejia

    For my media participation project, I co-hosted the radio show "Hear Hear UMD" on Monday October 13th. Even though I'm pretty much set on broadcast journalism and hopefully becoming an E! News Anchor one day, I still think it's important to familiarize myself with all aspects of journalism. 

    Before this experience, I had been on the radio twice but I hadn't quite been involved in the behind-the-scenes work of the shows, I only got interviewed. This time, I had to arrange a time to meet with my co-host (DJQ--he lives on my floor which is how I found out about the show) and actually plan the show. Usually, DJQ reviews music on his show but we wanted to change things up a bit. We decided that in addition to playing music, we would dedicate a portion of the show (halfway through the hour-long show) to talk about the role that music plays in Zumba classes--mine in particular--both from an instructors' perspective and a participants' perspective. He talked about the fact that as a new student in a Zumba class, he gets even more excited about a song that plays if he knows it because it adds a sense of familiarity to an otherwise new experience for him. I discussed how I choose my playlist for each class and how I choreograph/where I get my inspiration from. In addition, I talked about my involvement with Zumba and how I got my Guinness World Record. We also had a few people call in who had attended my Zumba classes at UMD, which was really cool. 

    Aside from the "talk show" part of the radio show, we played a variety of music ranging from rap & hip-hop to pop to rock in order to cater to all of the people who might have been listening to the show. We decided on the playlist based on our favorite songs and songs on the top 10 lists of each genre.

    This was a great experience because not only was I able to get creative and contribute to my floor-mate's radio show, but I also got a hands-on experience and learned a lot about the work that it takes to plan a radio show as well as to effectively present a radio show. Even though this was a totally new experience for me, I felt really comfortable on-air and I'm considering having a radio show of my own next semester. My co-host also invited me back and told me that I was a "natural" in the radio business. :)