MAD Gossip is a MavRadio show that tells entertaining stories, interviews guests and gives advice every Tuesday. After tuning into MAD Gossip last week and interviewing one of the hosts, some gossip about the show was revealed as well.
MAD Gossip has spent the last six months sharing gossip about campus events involving student organizations, athletics and fundraising, along with trends, advice, world news and relationships.
The idea of MAD Gossip began when Ashley DeBolt and Ashley Chism, who have been friends for over eight years, were hanging out. While they were discussing things going on in their lives, they came up with the idea of sharing their experiences by using MavRadio as an outlet. DeBolt, an education major and Chism, a broadcasting major, quickly put their talents together to form the show. Soon after, Mike Petranick also jumped aboard. In fact, ‘MAD’ is an acronym for Mike, Ashley and DeBolt.
“Adding Mike’s personality and technical skills was the glue that mended us all together,” DeBolt said.
The trio all has different jobs when it comes to producing the show. Chism designs the format for discussion topics and the whole group researches exciting topics to talk about.
“Our relationship portion on the show is based off of our own experiences, our friends’ experiences, or questions that get sent in,” DeBolt said.
The group often meets together for MAD Gossip nights to eat junk food, watch movies and plan gossip conversations for the air.
The show currently averages around eight listeners and two to five phone calls per session.
“Most people like to get involved and comment when we start a debate on relationships, love, dating and everything in between,” DeBolt said.
To find guests on the show, the team tries to find people who would make good contributions to the designated conversation subjects.
“Mainly the guests are people we have met through some type of event on campus,” said DeBolt. “It’s always really fun and interesting to see what will happen once the microphones go on.”
The guest for last week’s show was a prime example of the exciting guests MAD Gossip interviews on the show. Kylee Roebuck, a 23-year-old student at UNO who recently tried out for American Idol, gave MAD Gossip the scoop on her young marriage and divorce, advice about relationships and an update about where her life is now.
Previous guests have included people like guests from momomaha.com, who talked about upcoming events in Omaha, the goals of momaha and her views on dating.
According to DeBolt, the conversation on these views centered around the question “Do you date someone because you’re attracted to them or because of their personality?” The conversation quickly turned into a heated discussion. “Needless to say, the phones were ringing like crazy that day,” DeBolt said.
Another guest included a book author who spent time talking about relationship dynamics between characters in her books. She also talked about where she found inspiration for writing about controversial relationship issues. MAD Gossip also hosted an interview with the founder of UNO Crushes, who shared secrets and stories about what comes in through email. Recently, the show also talked to exchange students who spoke about the role that culture plays when it comes to dating.
DeBolt says that the show will continue to cover the same topics in the future; however, there will always be surprises. In fact, the team recently researched success and failures of online dating which will be sure to make an interesting show.
DeBolt said that if she could pick any guest to be on the show, it would be a representative from the Women’s Center for Advancement.
“We focus a lot on our show about funny, awkward, romantic and beautiful relationships, but I also find it important to bring awareness to the outraging growing number of statistics in assault cases,” DeBolt said. “It’s essential to understand that victims of domestic violence are not limited to just women, but affects hundreds of thousands of men, children, transgender, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and realistically anyone at anytime.”
Students and staff can tune into MAD Gossip on Tuesdays at noon by going to www.mavradio.fm. For anyone who would like to be a guest on the show, message the team on their Facebook page “MAD Gossip.” To suggest topics, leave a post on the Facebook wall. DeBolt and the MAD Gossip team would like to thank listeners, guests and supporters for turning the show into a success
