If Rowan College at Burlington County had a voice, alum and staff member Jason Varga may just as well be it. For over 10 years, Varga has helmed numerous audio and broadcasting programs at the college, first as a specialty DJ at the former radio station and now as the mastermind behind RCBC’s Podcast Network. You’ll also catch him producing voice-overs of some advertisements for RCBC.
He’s sunk his teeth into website content oversight for the past three years and recently implemented a new, up-to-date website for RCBC that optimally serves RCBC students.
Varga has become a cornerstone of RCBC digital communications through ears, eyes, and hearts. For these efforts, he was awarded the spring semester’s Barons Best award, proof of his hard work, loyalty, innovation, service to the community, and student-first disposition.
Although he wanted to go into film at the outset of his college career, an interest in radio began building during his time as a student at RCBC.
Varga was the epitome of counterculture back then, with “long hair,” “raggedy, hippie clothes,” and a passion for rock music. He knew what he wanted to listen to when turning on the radio, and there was an opportunity to connect with people who felt the same but found it hard with the corporatization of radio.
“It was about the ability to play music that wasn’t really heard on the radio,” Varga said. “People want to listen to college radio to hear music they couldn’t hear on commercial stations. I started listening to DJs in Philly, and I really fell in love with Pierre Robert… that’s when a light bulb went off. I was like, ‘I want to be on the radio.’”
Radio quickly became inferior when streaming apps allowed people to listen to music anywhere and anytime. As he watched more and more of his friends lose their jobs, Varga knew it was time to make a career pivot. He wanted to go somewhere where he could utilize his DJing, content producing, and commercial writing skills, and his laid-back, type-A personality could shine.
“I was never made to be a suit person,” Varga said. “And an opportunity presented itself to come back and rebuild the program where I cut my teeth.”
Back at RCBC, this time as an employee, it was Varga’s turn to teach the next generation of broadcasters. He focused on growing the student population and restoring the connection to the community. Varga’s role at the college evolved with how people consume media. It started solely with managing an on-air radio station before launching digital broadcasts, and his current role is split between managing the college’s website and podcast network.
“When I was at the radio, I managed my own website, and I had to do blogging for WordPress,” Varga explained. “Drupal [a website building software], is similar, so I was asked, ‘you’re techy, you're pretty smart. You think you can help update the website?’
“I'm very self driven, I don't like not knowing the answers to questions. The mechanical side of me and my brain that never stops working needs to rip things apart and put it back together. So I asked, ‘how can I best do this?’ I need to understand why, so that I can educate and talk to people. I started to gain confidence while taking on that web role, because I also had podcasting too.”
The Program Pod, the first podcast created at the college, has won several awards, including two at the national level, since it launched in 2021. Its success helped bring about even more podcasts to create an entire network, which includes The Baroness, hosted by RCBC Professor Brooke Mailhiot, the Student Choice Podcast, and the SGA Sit Down Series, the latter two hosted by students. Simultaneously, Varga gets to help share the stories of those at the college while delving back into the mentoring aspect of teaching he had started to miss so much after he stepped down from it after the pandemic.
It’s all to say that Varga has faced major changes between the sparking of interest in radio and the presentation of his Barons Best plaque this year. A decade on, the proof of his dedication is tangible. Despite obstacles, living in the moment, fostering the relationships he’s made on and off campus, and cracking many jokes—perhaps too many, according to his wife—have been parts of appreciating the little things in life, which helps him triumph.
“Life’s too short to really let things get to you, period.”
