Campus radio station CFRC launched a new podcast called Frosh FM on Aug. 10.

Frosh FM features discussions with student clubs, University services, and other Queen’s affiliates to familiarize incoming students with the campus community. Some of the episodes to date have explored slang terms and acronyms at Queen’s as well as the story of the Ban Righ Centre.

The Journal spoke to Dinah Jansen, station manager and host of Frosh FM, and Dean Haydon, CFRC’s music coordinator, about how the podcast is helping incoming first-years transition to Queen’s amidst a pandemic.

Jansen described the conception of Frosh FM as “swift and organic,” largely crediting the idea to both Haydon and Stephanie Nijhuis (program coordinator) who were unavailable for interview.

“It came together very quickly,” Jansen said. “With Frosh FM, [we intend] to initiate conversations and inform incoming students about the amazing services and club involvement around campus.”

In the process of developing Frosh FM, the team reached out to Olivia Stanton, commissioner of clubs at the AMS, who shared word of the upcoming podcast in a newsletter distributed to AMS-ratified student clubs. The team has since been in touch with over 40 clubs and is eager to engage with more.

Frosh FM published the first instalment of “Club Sandwich,” a segment dedicated to shining a spotlight on student clubs, on Aug. 17. Jansen spoke to two members of YIKES a Theatre Company to give students an idea of what to expect if they sign up for the performance arts group.

“We want students to know that we are here,” Jansen said. “CFRC is here to provide a service, and that’s to help students connect with their community. We’re here to provide that platform and enable groups to continue with their outreach.”

Moving forward, Jansen would like to speak with upper-year students whose initial experiences with Queen’s are “still fresh” and inspire conversations that “next year’s crop of students can learn from.”

“We might have interested fourth-year students provide advice to first-year students who are in the same discipline or in the same residence,” she added.

Due to COVID-19, Haydon expects Queen’s campus to feel fractured and isolating in the coming semester. He hopes Frosh FM will “keep those community ties strong over airwaves.”

“We are a vehicle, a way to facilitate that sense of community that’s been lost,” Haydon said. “If we were able to recapture that for Queen’s clubs, Queen’s communities, people on campus, I think we will have done our job well.”

Haydon also touched on how he hopes the podcast will help new students adjust to university life.

“At least when I was in first year, I would have more quickly gravitated towards [podcasts] than scrolling through PDFs,” Haydon said. “It’s just something accessible, easy, and approachable for incoming students who are nervous about this new life change.”

Moving forward, Jansen and Haydon hope to develop Frosh FM into a more personal and relatable show for students.

“If Frosh FM evolves from a more informational, how-to guide for incoming students into an audio diary for new and old students, talking about Queen’s life in general, that would be great to see,” Haydon said.

“Ideally, it becomes, as with the communities we’re trying to build and foster, a community in and of itself.”