The new part-time adviser for the MHCC radio program, Paul Sosso, is a man who likes his coffee.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t had time to grab a cup this morning. Sosso’s been busy with an impromptu meeting involving a student/staff dispute he doesn’t want to comment on, busy with putting together fresh ideas for the radio program, and surely busy with his recent move. Until about two weeks ago, he had been living in Hawaii, teaching at University of Hawaii.

Despite the lack of coffee and the busy nature of his short time at MHCC, his energy levels don’t seem affected as he runs into his office. He doesn’t seem interested in talking about the personal changes in recent weeks, and instead rattles off a string of credentials, making a point that one station he worked for was rated in the top 14 in the country.

“I worked at a flamethrower,” he stopped mid-sentence, and demonstrated what a flamethrower is, mimicking the sound. “We were throwin’ out Judas Priest at 7 a.m., and we were the first station to be playing Metallica. I worked for an NPR affiliate before that. I had my own audio/video post-production studio, and I did that for about eight and a half years. So, I’ve done local, regional and national radio.”

Sosso has settled into an office with some mixing equipment sitting next to a laptop. The room has a lot of standard things in it, like bookshelves, but the room is not yet populated with much personal decoration. Then again, he has been busy.

When asked what he does here, “That’s a really good question, one I’m still trying to answer.” After a brief laugh he described the amount of paperwork he’s been doing and the classes he’s been teaching. “I’m teaching Radio Broadcast 112 right now, but mostly we’re mapping out what we want to do with the spring program with regard to integrated media. Technology is changing.”

Sosso didn’t want to say too much about his plans for the MHCC radio program. “I’ve talked to the staff, and we think that X-58 is a very good tool for the college. We’ve talked about where the program can go, but for the moment I want to remain tight-lipped about what we’re planning.” He says not to take this as a sign of incompetency. “What’s great is the staff here gets it. Radio station staffs don’t get it as well as these guys. Radio is not what it was five years ago.”

Nor is the rest of the recorded world, as the cost of producing high quality audio has dropped incredibly. Computer programs, with digitized mixing boards, allow regular people to cut out the recording industry middle-man and produce their own high-quality music. Sosso is excited about the power of this, but also hesitant.

“It has leveled the playing field. I don’t have to get the attention of the producer; I don’t have to work my way up the pipeline that they’ve designed, that’s a good thing. The bad thing is that everyone thinks because they have a paint brush, they’re Picasso.”

Jobs specifically in radio are harder and harder to grab, but that’s why Sosso stresses the importance of how the radio program is educating people. “The pool of available talent is getting smaller. It’s not that there’s not enough people, it’s that the jobs aren’t there. So what we’re doing is deciding ‘how do we prepare our students to go out into the world and get a good job?’ The world isn’t compartmentalized. We’re trying to teach skills that bleed over into other avenues, to prepare students for all sorts of fields.”

So far Sosso likes it here. “I can get a good cup of coffee on campus, students are very friendly; MHCC is exactly what I was looking for. And the school looks nice. University of Hawaii, man, they need to just clean that place.”

On the subject of Sosso’s long list of radio jobs: “Radio is a very ego-driven business. They say if you’ve been fired, then you have a career.” He chuckled and was soon off again, busy with another meeting, and a meeting after that, then a class. Hopefully, he can squeeze in a cup of coffee.