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Teen radio show vies for national audience

From left, Josh Johnson, a third-year criminal-justice student; Daniel Regenscheit, a first-year journalism student; and Steve Shuler, a second-year electronic-journalism student, are co-hosts on the Teen Forum Show.

Media Credit: photo special to The Gamecock

The Teen Forum Show, a teenage call-in talk show with an estimated listening audience of 100,000, is looking for more student co-hosts.

The show is on Wednesdays from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on WZMJ-FM (Magic 93.1) in the Columbia area. Three USC students are on its panel of hosts, who range in age from 15 to 20 and are of many different ethnic and political backgrounds

In 1986, Andy Thomas, president of  The Andy Thomas Show and the Andy Thomas Radio Network, came up with the idea of a call-in radio show that would give a diverse group of teenagers the chance to voice their opinions on topics from teenage drug use to teenage relationships. Today, the show is statewide, and it has hopes of going national.

We are in the process of trying to launch this nationally; we have contacted agents and have hopes that this could get very big,  Thomas said. The show is searching for opinionated students to help host.

The job is similar to an internship; it does not pay, but it looks good on resumes and transcripts, gives students a chance to be on the radio, and it gives the hosts the chance to travel all over the state, expenses paid,? Thomas said.

Regular attendance at meetings and broadcasts is required for the job, he said, and anyone interested can contact Michael Thomas at (803)-255-8013.

The Teen Forum Show features a diverse group of high school and college students who facilitate debates on topics and take calls from listeners all over the state. There is very little we don?t talk about,Thomas said.

Josh Johnson, a third-year criminal-justice student, is a co-host on the show.

We get all kinds of calls,he said. I have people call in and seem like they want to kill me, and others love me. I tend to be the most outspoken of the group and am rarely left speechless on the show.?

The group is really diverse, he said. I would go so far to call some of them idiots, but that is just because their political views are so far left that it scares me.

Johnson said the show is important because it gives teenagers a chance to prove they know what is going on in the world.

We talk about a lot of issues ranging from underage drinking to the war in Iraq, he said. It is interesting, and college and high school students should definitely listen.

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