By Keaton Barbes
Warrior Utica HS
1st Place
Division 3, Yearbook
Organizations Writing
156 PIXX Inc. blasted its way into the school year with a new format. While the group previously wrote music reviews for their online website, this year they switched to podcast. Created by teacher Todd Koehn, the group gets its name from Koehn’s room number, and the fact that the students get to “pick” music topics.
“Setting up is crazy,” junior Shannen O’Kane said. “Mostly because it is in a high school and most of the time we don’t have a lot of people helping us prepare.“
Since the members are all students, it may seem a bit unorganized. As soon as things are in place, everyone feels a bit more relaxed. When set up is finished, it’s time to go live.
The show begins with the microphone being handed to junior Christopher Merill. He was instantly hooked when one of the earlier members handed him a flyer, and he joined the group last year. Merill was one of the students who was present during the transition of music writing to radio.
“It’s a tight group of friends that all share a heavy passion for music,” Merrill said. “I usually get teased mostly because of the things I say. We have no script, so I just say what’s on my mind.”
The members of 156 have various types of music interests, including rock, jazz, metal and blues. No matter their preferences, they don’t affect the way the Pixx team gets along as a group.
“I like all kinds of music,” Koehn said. “Everything is great besides emo-rock. I love music that has guitar solos.”
During the radio broadcast, each member of the group has a specific genre. They have the option to talk about this genre, play a piece of it or talk about news on upcoming albums.
All members are also entitled to a nickname. The name relates to the genre. For example, senior Alec Breslow’s broadcasting name is AZX309.
Each show is recorded in Koehn’s classroom, and is posted for those who want to listen at a later time. Podcasts can be accessed at the group’s website: 156PIXXinc.com, which also has photos and a guest book for listeners to submit comments.