Podcast Director Jenna Lazenby speaks about the various shows and opportunities the studio offers.
Did you know that there is a podcast studio located on campus? It is called “Studio 151,” and it is located in Kendall Hall across from the television studio. Before last semester, I did not know that this studio existed. I only found out because my friend was doing a podcast as part of her senior project.
I recently discovered that several other students also record podcasts there. I interviewed Jenna Lazenby, the Senior Podcast Director, to find out more about the podcasts they record, as well as how a student can get involved.
The studio has not been on campus very long. Lazenby noted, “The podcast studio has existed since Fall 2015, so it’s still relatively new.” Being a rather recent thing on campus, it makes sense that many students have not heard about it. Despite its relative obscurity, there are several podcasts that record from the studio.
Seven students use the studio regularly. The students who record podcasts include Aubrey Allen, Chloris Espinoza, Harry Libowsky, Devyn Lyon, Caleb Pinegar, Will Shows and Lazenby herself. These students are all anchors for TUTV.
Aubrey and Will are the News anchors, and they record podcasts about current events. “Will and I just put out an episode about the Hong Kong protests,” Lazenby said, adding that it was available to stream on Spotify.
Devyn and Harry are the sports anchors, and they have episodes on the TU football games as well as the college football playoff brackets.
Lazenby called Chloris and Caleb, “the dedicated Entertainment anchors.” They cover events such as movies, including a recent one about “IT: Part 2.”
All of these news podcasts can be found on Spotify under the title, “TU Media Lab: Weekly News and Entertainment.”
Besides the Media Lab podcast, Lazenby has her own podcasts called “Opinionated Podcast.” On the topic, Lazenby said, “‘Opinionated Podcast’ is located on Spotify, (beware mine is not always family friendly), but also Apple, Google, Stitcher, etc.”
Lazenby also noted a couple of other podcasts are recorded at TU as well. “There are a couple students who use the studio to record a Dragons and Dungeons podcast, and a student who records a bad poetry podcast, so those are pretty cool.”
All of those podcasts use Studio 151 and use roughly the same steps. The steps to take to recording a podcast are easier that one would think, according to Lazenby. The first step is deciding on a topic.
After picking your topic, then you have to record it and then, “You need to be comfortable hearing your own voice being played back, because that can be a little weird at first,” Lazenby said.
After getting used to your own voice on tape, Lazenby said then you need to choose an audio recording service, like Adobe Audition or Audacity, which are the major recording platforms in TU’s studio.
Finally, Lazenby said, “Then you need to have the patience to sit and listen to your audio back to edit and enhance your content.”
Although this seems like a lot of steps,, Lazenby ended with the assurance, “I know that sounds like a lot, but it’s actually super simple, once you get the hang of it, I promise.”
If a student is interested in getting involved in the podcast studio, they can contact Lazenby, the senior podcast director at jennal0425@gmail.com.