Maddie Alderman, Luke Barber, Dillon Spellman and Abby Oliver record an episode of the Senioritis podcast October 15.

Charger to continue publishing print edition along with online content

Laurel Barber, @lawl_e_20

Charger readers no longer have to wait a full week for a dose of WHS news.

In addition to printing each week in the Wabaunsee Signal-Enterprise, the Charger has launched a website, whscharger.com, to bring more stories to students and community members in a timely manner.

The Charger staff hopes to use the site to update people multiple times a week, as well as to reach many new readers who do not get the paper print.

Adviser Brendan Praeger said he hopes it will change the way students approach reporting. “I’m training students to be journalists, and spending weeks on a print story is no longer the norm for professionals,” Praeger said. “Our goal is to make more timely content to start, but eventually we’ll be able to produce stories in new formats.”

The Charger is also branching out into new formats with the launch of the Senioritis Podcast.

The podcast was started by four seniors: Luke Barber, Maddie Alderman, Dillon Spellman and Charger editor Abby Oliver. Each week they plan to discuss school and community news as well as some random topics. “Our main goal is to make people laugh and have fun, as well as get information across,” Oliver and Barber said.

Praeger said the students are learning every step of podcast production on their own. “We purchased microphones, but they had to figure out how to do things on their own. I think listeners will see an increase in sound quality as the year goes on,” Praeger said. Producer Dillon Spellman edits each episode in Garage Band before posting it to the website. The students also created art for the podcast and fulfilled other criteria to get the podcast on the iTunes store.

Episode 0, which was the student’s first attempt at recording, hit the web October 4 and was played to more than 300 times.

Praeger said he views the podcast as an extension of the Charger, which is also produced by students. Oliver is the editor of the Charger this year, and the other students are all former staff members. “I am advising them to make sure they avoid any legal or ethical problems, but they are doing all of the creative work themselves. It’s great to see them take initiative and get excited about sharing their work.”

Read the Charger at whscharger.com and check out the Senioritis podcast on iTunes. Updates will also be posted by @whscharger on Twitter.