Jason Groth 1996
I graduated from Jefferson High School in 1996, after two solid years of intense promo-making for my and Chris Reinhart's Friday morning show on Jeff 92. I learned so much from the class -- not only the real, hands-on skills and the technical aspects to radio and television production, but also how to prank my fellow staff members, put cool effects on my voice, pick the funniest PSAs, and really see how much fun it is to have a job you like. I felt the effects immediately -- I got picked up for the graveyard shift on 106.7 FM, WGLM the summer before I went to Indiana University.
I graduated from IU in 2001 with degrees in English and History and a minor in telecommunications. All through college my high school band turned college band, Cadmium Orange, recorded and played in Bloomington and the surrounding areas. The band broke up in late summer of 2000, and I turned my attention to my current job at the Organization of American Historians (http://www.oah.org). Although I work full time at the OAH, I also have another full time gig (or four) as a guitarist in a ton of bands. The most popular and successful is Magnolia Electric Company (formerly Songs: Ohia -- http://www.magnoliaelectricco.com, http://www.songsohia.com), on Secretly Canadian Records (http://www.secretlycanadian.com). I also play with The Coke Dares (http://www.thecokedares.com), The Impossible Shapes (also on Secretly Canadian, http://www.theimpossibleshapes.com), and a band with my wife, Nicole Evans, called Whippoorwill (no annoying website yet).
I have spent the last four years either working with historians and the publishing industry or travelling with my band(s) across all of the United States, Canada, and pretty much everywhere in Western Europe (getting as far Southeast as Croatia and Serbia and as far North as Sweden and Finland with everything in between). I got married in September, 2005, and am the proud owner of an 11 year old cat named Lady.
I owe the Jeff RTV program, and especially Randy Brist, a lot of thanks for teaching me the concept behind good broadcasting but, more importantly, letting me get in there and do it myself until I got it right. Even as a professional musician, I have never been in a "big-time" radio or television station half as organized or easy to deal with as Randy Brist's RTV facility at Jefferson High School -- seriously. I have never taken it for granted and never will. I doubt I would possess the skills or confidence that I use every day without the incredible training that Randy Brist offered, and still offers today, to the students in the Broadcast Media program at Jefferson High School.