Oct. 14-27, 2013www.lcc.edu/lookout

FEATURES11

Jeremy KohnStaff Writer

Buried deep in the depths of the TLC building, a place resides where LCC students can come together to share their mutual respect for mu-sic.

It is here where LCC’s hard-work-ing radio jockeys work their magic to bring LCC Radio WLNZ 89.7 across the airwaves.

WLNZ has been on the air since the early 1970s, according to broad-cast manager Daedalion Lowry.

The station started out primarily as an educational tool, and it wasn’t until Feb. 11, 1994, that WLNZ signed on to become a legitimate radio station.

“WLNZ’s core focus is the adult alternative album genre of music,” Lowry said.

“We play artists like Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers, but we also go back a little further to the originators, artists like Paul Simon, Neil Young and Bob Dylan and mix it all together.”

The radio station also devotes airtime to other genres of music in-cluding big band, blues, and jazz, as well as Americana/roots music.

Karen Hopper, a student em-

ployee, is responsible for handling WLNZ social media duties.

“I missed radio from when I was in college, so I decided to apply (to WLNZ) and I was hired,” Hopper said.

Besides music, WLNZ also keeps its students up to date on what’s happening with Associated Press news presented every hour and a Lansing news show the station airs every Monday.

WLNZ is funded primarily by LCC. However, the station also raises money through pledge drives and concerts featuring local Lan-sing acts.

The next concert fundraiser is on Friday, Nov. 1, as part of a partner-ship with Tent on a Fiddle.

There will be four acoustic acts performing at The Avenue Café on Michigan Avenue in Lansing: Crane Wives, Spring Tales, Who Hit Jon and the Tiamani Project Band.

Local Fusion, a radio program that airs on WLNZ, helps expose listen-ers to the crop of musical talent that the Lansing music scene has to offer.

Every Friday, WLNZ hosts a con-cert at Sir Pizza in Lansing Old Town, where they showcase the lat-est signed and unsigned talent fea-

tured in the Lansing area. Lowry said he is interested in

partnering with LCC’s newspa-per The Lookout on future projects. He described how a combined ef-fort would benefit both parties in-volved.

“I would like to create a show in-volving The Lookout that would …

gain The Lookout some radio expo-sure, and also as a forum for those involved in The Lookout where they can do some sort of news radio show,” Lowry said.

These are just some of the ideas Lowry and his crew have In their heads to keep WLNZ an ever-evolv-ing media outlet.

Amber GlombFreelancer

The term “wing it” no longer has any place among the board members of LCC’s Sign Lan-guage Club. Along with the new school year, came new ideas, policies, positions and board members.

New to the Sign Language Club board are two deaf mem-bers as well as chairperson posi-tions.

Sarah Beth Cohen, the secre-tary and mentorship coordina-tor, explained these new fea-

tures. “Basically, what’s happening

is the officers (last year’s board members) are mentoring the chairs,” Cohen said.

“We are here to help guide them so once we are gone, they are good to go. They won’t have as many issues.”

At times, Cohen said, both the lack of experience and guidance yielded problems. For example, if games were being played, someone would forget to bring a main component. This hindered the club’s activities.

“We didn’t have training,” Co-

hen said. “We were put into the spots and then you kind of wing it and just went from there.”

Interpreter in Training (ITP) student Victoria Ellis is now the merchandising chairperson and she said feels like she is able to give something back to the as-piring sign language students.

“It’s already nice to be able to have that extra responsibility knowing that what we are doing is helping the first year students get acclimated to the program,” Ellis said.

“I know how it feels being a first year student; being ner-

vous or afraid to do things and not knowing what’s going on. It’s nice to be on the other side of that and help out by creat-ing events for first year students and Interpreter in Training stu-dents.”

One of the club members’ goals this year is to involve more members from the deaf commu-nity and students who are new to the sign language program.

“This year, they (the board members) are trying to change things to make it more fluid for everybody and less intimidat-ing,” Cohen said.

“They are trying to get more first year students involved and … actually going to events.”

This year is Ellis’ first year on the board, but she has a vision for the future of the Sign Lan-guage Club.

“(I envision) giving everyone a place to go where it’s a safe en-vironment, where they can prac-tice their skills, meet people and not feel like there is any pres-sure; just a safe place to come and sign,” Ellis said.

For more information about LCC’s Sign Language Club, visit www.lccsignlanguageclub.com

Sarah SpohnA&E Editor

Young Shill-Roberts de-scribes herself as a part-time student who has been studying fine arts at LCC for the last 10 years.

Shill-Roberts, 59, said getting a degree is not an immediate goal.

“I’m not really in a hurry to get it over with because I still need to get more, get my skills polished,” Shill-Roberts said.

Her first-ever gallery exhibit brought the high-est grossing sales of any opening at Old Town’s Absolute Gallery.

“The gallery owner told me that my show was the best show that

she ever had over at the gallery,” Shill-Roberts said. “And so it was very successful and I’m very happy with that.”

The 47-piece collection was on display at Abso-lute Gallery from Sept. 8 to 30, and Shill-Roberts was featured as the artist of the month.

The old saying goes, “Practice makes perfect,” and this artist is the per-fect example of that.

Since Shill-Roberts has been a student at LCC she is no stranger to the fine arts curriculum.

Often taking the same art classes twice, Shill-Roberts continues to fine-tune her craft, experi-menting with different mediums.

“I just don’t do one kind, so I had watercolor mainly, and then I had oil painting and some prints and then I do portraits, landscape, still life,” Shill-Roberts said.

“I try to do as many different types of a sub-ject.”

Her works include watercolor, etchings and oils, as well as abstracts.

LCC Professor Jim Fer-guson, who is currently mentoring Shill-Roberts, described what makes her so successful.

“She seeks deeper un-derstanding of theoreti-cal and conceptual issues in art and has learned how to direct her own in-vestigations in art, while at the same time benefit-

ing from criticism and in-teraction with other art-ists,” Ferguson said.

What sets her apart, Ferguson said, is the time she spends learn-ing the business side of art, something many students do not expose themselves to.

And if her first gallery exhibit sales are any indi-cation of what is to come with this emerging artist, business is booming.

A few of Shill-Roberts’ original exhibit pieces can still be seen on display at Absolute Gallery, located at 307 E. Grand River.

The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. and on the weekends from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

LCC Broadcast Manager Daedalion Lowry works on-air at WLNZ’s radio station by getting the music ready for students and community members to listen to Oct. 8.

Photo by Suzanna Powers

LCC Radio WLNZ rocks the airwaves

Part-time student shows full-time success in Old Town

Improve skills with Sign Language Club

LCC student Young Shill-Roberts shows off her art dis-play at Old Town’s Absolute Gallery Oct. 8.

Photo by Suzanna Powers