One-man bands may be the wave of SIUC’s radio future as Digi Dawg, formerly Radioactive, received a contribution from the SIU Alumni Association Thursday to update its radio production equipment.

The Alumni Association donated $350 to Digi Dawg, a student radio/television group, who in turn purchased electronic equipment called Musical Instrument Digital Interface.

This equipment will allow us to automate everything, Tracy Powell, former president of Radioactive, said. It enables one person to do the work of five.

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MIDI will allow students to produce their own music, bringing three or four pieces of musical equipment together without having three or four musicians, he said.

Powell said the MIDI program acts as a map; while the instruments are playing, the program draws a grid, recording on the grid the instrument’s beats. The MIDI map shows up as a 16-channel grid, and students can rearrange and adjust the rhythm beats as necessary, he said.

The program can be initiated with a remote control, Powell said. It works just like a VCR would. Say, if you wanted to record Days of Our Lives’, you would just program in the time. The MIDI works under the same principle.

Powell said he is hoping to contact advertising agencies for voice work by putting together a demonstration tape using the MIDI equipment.

It is important for the Association to look back at our own alma mater and utilize the students, because we have first-hand knowledge that it is good work, Ed Buerger, Alumni Association Director, said.

Buerger said it was the first time the Alumni Association provided the funding for Digi Dawg’s equipment, which comes through Alumni Association membership dues.

They (alumni) see it as an investment, he said. Students today can now receive state-of-the-art equipment. In our own way, we are dragging you into the 20th century. It’s a worthwhile partnership.

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The Alumni Association originally established a relationship with the group for a spot advertisement of the basketball Salukis’ tournament in Hawaii.

Over the course of last year, we’ve worked with Tracy, Buerger said. We’ve been really pleased with what they can do.