Earlier this month, students in our year-long radio production program, Loud and Clear Youth Radio, were invited to take over RadioACTive to talk about their most recent project, Beyond the Beat, and share a few audio essays they produced for radio.
These students, also known as The Loudies, are not unfamiliar with the KRCL studio. Loud and Clear Youth Radio is a partnership between Spy Hop and KRCL, giving Utah teens a voice through Utah’s only weekly, youth-produced radio show. For over 20 years, this segment has been a space for youth to share what they have to say about music and community.
Once a Loudie himself, the episode’s host, Connor Estes, jumped right in. He asked the students to tell him a little bit more about Beyond the Beat. “It’s basically a cool mini audio essay we could do on whatever artist or song we wanted to—basically a research project.” says Torie, one of the Loudies. “And it was super fun to do! I love learning about music and sharing that knowledge with people.” Each Loudie produced their own audio piece, digging into the historical, social, political, and creative context of the music they chose to highlight.
Torie (left) and Roya (right) in the KRCL Studio during RadioACTive on April 7th, 2025
Roya’s piece was on Steely Dan. Here’s a bit of what she had to say:
“Genre, to Steely Dan, is a fickle thing… Steely Dan isn’t really rock. To put such a vast body of work into one genre would be a fallacy. Some songs are rock, sure, but many other songs are pop, or blues, or R&B. Each album and project has its own identity, its own style, its own brand of irony and humor that mixes together to create their signature obtuse lyrics. Who truly fits into one genre?”
We asked Lou, our Radio Production mentor, about this experience: “Every time KRCL asks us to be on a different show, we jump on the opportunity to make it happen. These students have worked so hard on these projects.”
If you missed this show, you can listen to the takeover here! (The entire segment is great; but if you’d like to skip to the Loudie’s section, it begins at 22:54).
The Loudies will be back on RadioACTive on May 19th, 21st, and 28th, where they will talk about local issues and highlight community resources.
You can also view the digital zine created by the Loudies for this project—each student designed a page or two to accompany their audio piece and share a bit about themselves and the music they chose to highlight.
Catch the Loudies every Saturday night from 9-10pm on 90.9FM KRCL.
