Moody P.

As Moody sat in a UAF coffee shop, they noticed — for the first time — the campus radio station playing on the café speakers. Suddenly, they had an idea.

Moody opened their laptop and hit a few keys to select a song. Within moments, it filled the café. “I felt I was like in a hacker movie or something,” Moody said.

It wasn’t a hack, though. Moody works as KSUA’s production director. The station’s modern, fully digital operation allows such remote control of the playlist.

Moody, an art and psychology double major, volunteered and worked as a DJ at the station for a few years before becoming production director.

The station broadcasts a song playlist of “alternative stuff that would normally never play on the commercial, mainstream radio,” Moody said.

The station also transmits a variety of student-produced programs, including Moody’s “Robotic Radio.” 

“I didn’t want to just play music,” Moody said. “I was listening to my grandpa talk about ‘The Lone Ranger’ broadcasts and stuff, and I always thought it was really cool. The art of radio storytelling is something that is really interesting.”

Born and raised in Fairbanks, Moody enrolled at UAF after graduating from high school in 2016. But they took a break for a few years.

“UAF is a pretty nontraditional school,” Moody said. “There’s people from all different stages in their life here. And it’s helped me feel, like, not out of place here.”