By Victoria Jimenez

For 24 hours straight, Colorado State University-Pueblo’s own college station REV 89 will be participating in the 7^th annual College Radio Day for the very first time on Oct. 5.

Founded by Rob Quicke, General Manager at WPSC 88.7 FM at William Paterson University in New Jersey, College Radio Day is first of a series of primary programs hosted by the College Radio Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to promote and support college radio stations and its students.

According to their website, “College Radio Day is a celebration of the unique medium of college radio that significantly boosts the profile of college radio in the media.”

With over a hundred national college radio stations participating, the event has been praised by the media and famous figures including former president Barack Obama, Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, Andrew W.K., and Coldplay’s Chris Martin.

REV 89 Station Manager, Jenna Mangino, said she was excited to be part of a larger celebration spanning across the entire U.S.

“I want all my students to have the chance to celebrate the core of college radio, which is playing alternative artists, including some that might not get played on radio today,” said Mangino. “We’re throwing back to our alternative roots.”

Mangino said she was proud of the students who are working diligently to make sure REV 89’s first College Radio Day goes smoothly. “The talent pool of students at REV 89 has never been greater,” said Mangino.

According to Mangino, college radio matters because it gives students opportunities to learn self-expression and to have a one-on-one relationship with the listener even though thousands of others are tuned in.

KTSC-FM, widely known as REV 89, has been in continuous operation since Oct. 12, 1970 and will be coming up on their 48^th anniversary next week. The station is a licensed educational facility and broadcasts to the southeastern Colorado region. Listeners can connect with REV 89 on 18 different platforms, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music and Amazon.

Student station manager Dez Rowe has been at the boards and working behind the scenes for years, but said she was excited to finally be participating alongside her peers for College Radio Day. “I’ve known about the event for a few years now, but I’m hyped to finally participate in College Radio Day for my senior year at REV 89,” said Rowe.

Rowe said that college radio stations, such as REV 89, provide a base for students looking to work firsthand in broadcast.  “It gives students real hands-on experience that they will use later in the industry,” said Rowe.

Blake Lotter, digital director at REV 89, is one of several students on the team that will be on air during College Radio Day. Lotter considers joining REV 89 to be the best decision he has made in his college tenure so far.

“REV 89 has given me the opportunity to express creative freedom in ways that I don’t think I could have found elsewhere at CSU-Pueblo,” said Lotter.

Sam Lovato, mass communications department chair, has been at the helm of REV 89 and witnessed extensive growth and development of students who have joined the station. Lovato said college radio was the testing ground for contemporary music for many years.

“Different sounds that weren’t accepted commercially immediately had a place on college radio,” said Lovato. “The programmers, which were students, were respected in the music industry in the early nineties because record labels wanted to use college radio as a testing ground.”

Lovato hopes that their participation in College Radio Day will become an annual occurrence.

“We’re relying on alternative rock music from the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, but we have a good alternative mix,” said Lovato. “It’s fun to see that those songs still have shelf life and resonant today.”

Lovato said that the station has never been committed to a format for an extended period of time, but always looks to evolve with changing times. The station went through several makeovers in its 40 year history, with its most recent top 40 format change taking place in 2017.

“It’s like time travel,” said Lovato. “People like to go back in time and feel something that they felt long ago and music imprints on the mind and the soul in such an amazing way; our hope is that the memories are positive when they hear these songs again.”

Learn more about College Radio Foundation

By Melanie Mau

Cross Parallel, a Christian ministry for young adults, moved to the campus of Colorado State-University-Pueblo this semester. 

They meet every Friday night in the Occhiato Student Center at 7:00 p.m. Cross Parallel’s first meeting was on August 24.  

“There was a lot of competition that night,” said Pastor Tony Amaya. It was CSU-Pueblo Back-to-School Discount Night at the Fair and there was a campus-wide capture-the-flag event, yet Amaya said five new people showed up at Cross Parallel.  “I’m so excited to see God move there,” Amaya said. 

Amaya is a CSU-Pueblo alumnus.  After earning his degree in sociology from CSU-Pueblo, Amaya went to Refuge School of Ministry to study discipleship and bible training. He has been the young adult pastor at Pueblo Christian Center since 2012, but in Feb. 2017, he became the youth ministry pastor for Cross Parallel. 

“When I went to CSU-Pueblo, it was a hard time,” Amaya said. “The problem is that a lot of students on campus can’t find a place to plug in a call their church.” 

“Our desire is to give people the opportunity to cross paths with Jesus every Friday night,” Amaya said, “to cross paths with Jesus, and cross paths with people, and then learn how we can walk parallel to His teachings.”  

Amaya said the average age of Cross Parallel attendees is 23 years old and demographics include “college and twenty-somethings, even up to 30 years old.”  According to Amaya, approximately 40 people attend Cross Parallel per, and sometimes as many as 60 people attend.  “It depends on what else is going on around town,” Amaya said. 

According to Amaya, 70% of Christian high school graduates don’t go back to church after graduation.  Many college students who live in dorms do not have vehicles.  Many are from out of town, or from out of state. Amaya said it takes a lot of initiative for them to reach out and find a home church in an “unfamiliar” city. “I said, ‘God we want to be there…take church to them,’” Amaya said.  

Amaya said he wants Cross Parallel wants to be a church who decides to “go and tell others about Jesus, because where there is a need, there is an opportunity,” rather than a “come and see” type of church. “Cross Parallel is a place of love, we serve a God who is a God of love,” Amaya said.  

Amaya shared further, “Biblically, the 12 disciples were between the ages of 16-22.” In other words, they were young adults.  Jesus invested time in the 12, and Cross Parallel wants to invest time in CSU-Pueblo’s young adults. “Jesus loved everybody, but he invested in the young adults,” Amaya said.  “Without God, there is a lot of confusion facing young adults today in the decisions they have to make.” 

Amaya said ministry at CSU-Pueblo has been “on his heart” since he was an 18-year-old freshman.  He said he recalls helping set up for a concert in Hoag Hall when he was a student. Amaya said he asked himself, “What if these seats were filled with worshippers?” while looking at the seats. 

Amaya said students can expect to be challenged in their walk with God, when attending Cross Parallel on Friday nights.  “The biggest challenge in life is walking parallel with Christ,” Amaya said, “so Cross Parallel offers a place where students can expect to be loved, a place to belong, a place to worship, a place to learn and grow, and a place to find community.” 

“If we can effectively reach students who attend,” Amaya said, “they will be graduating soon and going out into the city, becoming managers, bosses, employees everywhere; there’s the change that Pueblo needs.” 

By James Gavato

The Thunderwolves Women’s soccer team bounced back for their first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win Sunday afternoon at Art & Lorraine Gonzales Stadium against the Colorado Christian University Cougars.

Two weeks ago, the Thunderwolves were ranked 23^rd in the nation; but heading into Sunday’s contest with the Cougars, Colorado State University-Pueblo had lost three straight games to open Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play and had dropped out of national rankings.

The Cougars opened up the scoring in the 27^th minute when Renee De La Torre found Amanda Lopez in the middle of the box for her first of two goals, beating CSU-Pueblo keeper Rylie Martin.

Five minutes later, the Thunderwolves equalized when sophomore Sierra Perez sent a through ball to Mackenzie Bean, who scored with an outside of the foot shot.

The Thunderwolves continued to put on pressure, creating many opportunities, but the half ended with the scored tied at 1.

The second half was a goal fest for both sides. Karley Whiteman started the scoring with an upper 90 shot over the outstretched arms of Colorado Christian goalkeeper Ireland VanDyke in the 54^th minute.

But the Cougars answered seven minutes later with Sophie Kern hitting an upper 90 shot of her own, tying the game once again.

The Thunderwolves then scored two straight goals to take a 4-2 lead. The first of the two came in the 67^th minute, when Laikyn Koss won a header off VanDyke’s goal kick, and the ball fell to Bean. Bean played a ball to Michelle Moure, who placed her shot in the back of the net.

The second of the two goals occurred eight minutes later, when Kylee Sakaguchi sent a corner kick into the box, and VanDyke leaped and tipped the ball in the air. Koss followed, and kneed the ball into the goal, beating Colorado Christian’s Karli Wilson to the 50-50 play.

In the 79^th minute, Lopez brought Colorado Christian within one, scoring her second goal in the bottom right of the net, with the assist coming from De La Torre again.

CSU-Pueblo controlled the ball for the remaining 11 minutes and held off Colorado Christian. The Thunderwolves had 21 shots, while the Cougars had 13.

“It’s about time,” CSU-Pueblo head coach Sierra Cardenas said. “We’ve played some tough RMAC teams and we are way better than what our record shows. We saw this as a game we needed to win. It feels good.”

“We have been talking a lot about being in the moment, and having zero outside effects on how we play,” Cardenas said. “We had a strong mentality. Most teams wouldn’t be able to battle the heat and the back and forth scoring. We overcame this with a tough mindset.”

CSU-Pueblo improved to 4-3-1 (1-3 RMAC), while Colorado Christian fell to 2-3-2 (1-3 RMAC). The Thunderwolves travel to New Mexico Highlands next Sunday afternoon and the Cougars return home for a Friday afternoon battle against Adams State.

By Emily Montgomery

The Colorado State University-Pueblo football team was unstoppable on the first Saturday night of Sept. in their home opener against Dixie State. With a final score of 56-14, the Thunderwolves proved they were hungry for a victory.

Running back Austin Micci had many highlights during the game, including three touchdowns. “It was great to be able to contribute to the win tonight, “ Micci said.

For many of the new offensive lineman this was their first time starting in a college football game. “It looked like they’ve been playing together for three, four years, they killed it,” Micci said.  “They made huge holes for the running back, it just showed out on the field, and I couldn’t be more happy running behind those guys.”

The players’ hard work this past offseason and this summer has paid off.  “It’s a huge confidence builder coming into the year going 1-0 first week,” Micci said.

The Thunderwolves were able to beat Dixie State, but the team is preparing for a challenge next week. “We’re all really excited to just take on Chadron next week at home.” Micci said. “They’re going to be a tough opponent so we gotta just continue to take it day by day and get ready for those guys.”

The team may have gotten a victory, but Micci said there is still room for improvement. “On the offensive side we had a few turnovers tonight that could’ve been costly down the road,” Micci said.

Cornerback Emery Taylor, congratulated his team for their successful night. “It’s always good to start the season off with a win, so we just gotta keep going, trying to go 1-0 each week,” Taylor said.

Although the Thunderwolves were ahead on the scoreboard for the majority of the game, Taylor said his team tried to keep the intensity up. “We just tell ourselves to stay composed and the score is always zero, zero,” Taylor said. “We try not to look at the score too much.”

“The goal is always to win,” Taylor said. “I know we have a good team offense and defensively so just to come out here with my brothers and take a dub home.”

According to cornerback Tevin Donnell, the team needs to stay disciplined in the games. “Not having so many penalties, because I think they actually won the penalty battle,” Donnell said. “We were just lucky enough to pull it through.”

Winning the first game gives the team a confidence boost for the rest of the season. “When you could start the first game with a big blowout like that, it’s always good,” Donnell said. “Dixie’s one of the better teams in our conference too, so it’s always good to have that under our belt, just show the rest of the RMAC we mean business.”

The offense made many successful plays in their victory against Dixie State. “In the game we had three long rushing touchdowns, I think they’re doing great,” Donnell said. “I think we just need a little bit more chemistry and everything will be put together.”

The Thunderwolves will face Chadron State at home Saturday, Sept. 8, at 6 p.m.

Staff review

Have you ever been to a coffee shop or restaurant and liked it so much that you stayed longer than you needed to, but felt guilty for doing so?

If so, try one of Pueblo’s newest businesses, Tick Tock Anti-Café, located at 315 N. Santa Fe Ave: those feelings of guilt may become a thing of the past.

For those wondering what an anti-café is, it is a relatively new concept. It originated in Russia less than 10 years ago where it proved popular and spread across Europe. What makes it different from most eateries is that rather than charging you for food, you are charged for the time spent there.

As you enter Tick Tock, you are warmly welcomed by one of its co-owners or one of their friendly employees who will take your name and start a timer. You are free to grab a coffee, read a book or work on your computer using the free Wi-Fi.

When you manage to bring yourself to re-enter the outside world you will pay based on a rate of eight cents a minute so if you stay for an hour you pay less than five dollars. If you’re not interested in getting change back, you can donate the extra time you paid for back to the store and let a future patron utilize it.

Co-owner Emily Gradisar, who founded it with business partner Laurel Sherman, was inspired to open Tick Tock after spending time in an anti-café in England while doing postgraduate work there.

“We need community spaces,” she said.  “I love a good bar, I love a good fancy coffee shop, but they are very limited in what they can do as far as community building.”

The eclectic yet comfortable décor is a good start toward building the community she desires.  The styles of furniture vary, appealing to a wide range of tastes and the walls are covered with a mix of pictures and collectibles, even featuring a mural by local artist Jacob Barger.

If you are a frequent customer of Starbucks or some other eatery you may find the menu somewhat lacking; it consists of just coffee, tea, water and light snacks. However, you are free to bring in outside food or even have it delivered.

Tick Tock also features its own lending library, board games and as well as a dedicated children’s area.

There are only two things that may detract from your experience. Tick Tock is located across the street from the Pueblo Chamber of Commerce so depending on the time of day you go parking may be difficult to find. The other possible negative is that music is played throughout the building, so if you prefer a quiet space, you may find it distracting.

OVERALL RATING: 8 out of 10

Tick Tock Anti-Café is open seven days a week, 8:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

By Jacob Duran

Netflix sure knows how to offer amazing original content and “Set It Up” is proof.

“Set It Up” is a romantic comedy that achieves what many from Hollywood try and fail to do. For a movie that almost got released by Hollywood, it’s a blessing that Netflix was able to acquire this film.

The film plot follows two fresh-faced business executive assistants Harper and Charlie, played by Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell, both overworked by their bosses and itching for some free time. They team up to devise a plan to get their stern and demanding bosses, Kirsten and Rick, played by Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs, to fall in love with one another.

The two crafty assistants play behind the curtain to ignite the passion of their bosses’ relationship but unknowingly begin to create their own tension-filled romance in the process.

The story has a perfect balance of appropriate romantic comedy tropes, but is backed up with fresh comedic material. The variety of original jokes and real-world references hit hard with a modern binge-watching audience and avoids choking the movie with overused clichés.

The film’s characters are well-written with realistic and relatable personalities. They are the heart of this movie that work just as hard as the story itself. Harper and Charlie are very charming and likable from the start: their chemistry is magnetic. Many of the best scenes of the film are those which feature both lead characters and their interactions with all other minor roles.

The type of characters that are focused on are relatively fresh: movies that feature the office assistant as main characters have had successful history on screen: see Anne Hathaway’s reprisal role as assistant in “The Devil Wears Prada” and America Ferrera’s iconic act in “Ugly Betty.”

The editing of this movie is done very uniquely from other rom coms, as it is more modern, has references to modern technology and emphasizes it within transitions.  It’s done so smoothly, it’s almost as if the audience is watching a couple fall in love in real time.  This is what makes the pacing so balanced and keeps everything going strong the entire movie.

The movie soundtrack is another little touch that boosts the cinematic experience. Tracks vary from romantic to more upbeat, unlike other rom com movies that feature specific and popular songs forced into the soundtrack for recognition. One of them also has a subtle reference to the lead actresses’ famous parent with “The Power of Love” being featured.

Overall, “Set It Up” is a refreshing rom com with a good balance of old clichés and new modern perks.  The two likable leads work wonders for the film alongside clever and witty humor that will keep viewers laughing for hours.  For those that have Netflix, watch this movie: it is proof of the magic that the streaming service creates.

Watch the trailer below.