Joliet, Ill. – It didn’t take long for WCSF 88.7 FM music director Micole Johnson to get noticed. It took approximately one year, to be exact, and now the University of St. Francis (USF) digital audio recording arts major with a music entrepreneurship concentration can add to her resume that she has been named the North American College and Community (NACC) Music Director of the Month for March.
Johnson, who started her radio career last year as the station’s production director, credits former WCSF music director Jess Stevens with developing her initial interest in working at the radio station.
“Jess always told me all about the things she was doing in her role with WCSF, and I found it interesting. She’s the person who actually got me involved with it,” Johnson said.
When Stevens left the station, Johnson was promoted and has been enjoying the new role ever since.
“I enjoy listening to and choosing songs for the Hip Hop, Chill, and Electronic categories the most. Those are the main genres I listen to, so I have an ear for them. Also, I like talking to some of the promoters,” she said.
WCSF station manager and USF adjunct instructor Anthony Musiala sees that Johnson is already able to successfully apply the skills she is learning her classes to her role at the radio station.
“Micole brings many skills she acquired at USF to WCSF FM. In addition to reviewing and programming music for the radio station, Micole uses her audio production skills that she learned in USF’s DARA program and applies those skills to create the fantastic radio liners you hear on our station. Micole has a great work ethic; you can usually find her in the radio station’s production studio either tutoring radio students with their on air productions, reviewing music, or creating on air audio productions of her own,” he said.
Johnson, who is humbled by the recognition, plans to continue working at WCSF throughout her college career and aspires to continue working in the music industry after earning her degree.
“Earning this type of national recognition means a lot to me. I am happy that I have been doing my job well enough, and I hope this opens more opportunities up for me in the future. I want to be involved with the music industry on some level. Mostly, I would like to be someone who works directly with artists, like a producer or something background wise,” she said.
The North American College and Community Radio Chart is a weekly Top 200 radio chart that receives weekly airplay reports from over 200 college and non-commercial radio stations across North America. NACC has become a primary source for the publication of college radio airplay. As a result, the NACC Top 200 Chart was cited in several major news publications such as Billboard and The Economist.
Currently celebrating 100 years of higher education rooted in Franciscan values, the University of St. Francis, in Joliet, Ill., serves close to 4,000 students nationwide and offers undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and certificate programs in the arts and sciences, business, education, nursing and social work. There are over 50,000 USF alumni across the globe. For information, call 800-735-7500 or visit stfrancis.edu.
University of St. Francis: Bigger thinking. Brighter purpose.
# # #
