A Night in John Kincade’s Radio Class
By Erin Carty
Mid-terms are just around the corner and John Kincade is half-way through his first semester as a professor. Outside of his work on the morning show, Kincade was brought back to North Broad to teach at his alma-mater, Temple University! With more than 25 years of experience in sports-talk radio, he gets to use his experience and expertise each Wednesday night to inspire a new generation of radio broadcasters. I had the opportunity to sit in on one of his classes, and am ready to Rate My Professor.
Although I thought I would get points off my grade for being 10 minutes late to class, Kincade greeted and welcomed me to the class with open arms. He continued to create a comfortable learning environment to his close-knit class of about 20 students. The students were very eager to participate and it showed with one of the class activities.
During this activity, Kincade had his students practice their on-air skills. Their goal was talk about a specific subject that was written on the board. More than half of the class rose their hands in anticipation to participate. As I sat there and listened, I was amazed with the amount of talent that surrounded me in the classroom. Each student had a great conversational approach, and supported their opinions with various points. After each response was delivered by different students, Kincade gave honest critiques to their on-air host interpretations. However, there was an overall lesson to be taught with the exercise.
Kincade taught the lesson of preparation for each show, and the format of a radio broadcast. Although there were great responses, he emphasized how important it was to do research to find these topics and explain points to support their thoughts on the topic. However, the biggest takeaway I had was on his knowledge of the different age demographics that tune into media and how it is interpreted in different ways between each age groups. I also enjoyed his emphasis on the meaning of broadcast.
Overall, I learned so much from just sitting in on one class. Being a Temple Alumni myself, I was so happy to see this class incorporated into the curriculum and wish I had the chance to take the course when I was a student. John Kincade is continuing to relate to his students, while teaching them valuable lessons for their future careers. He continues to incorporate his love of sports into the class, but also broadens his own horizons to touch on other radio-talk show subjects to educate his students. I recommend this class for those who are interested in a career in radio broadcast. Thanks to the hard work of John Kincade and his class, the future of the radio industry is looking bright.
