Ingrid Mezo

(10/4) A weekly Sunday radio program on Mount Saint Mary’s Radio, channel 89.9 FM, with Hoover as its host, is slated to start Oct. 22.

The radio program is an alternative way to distribute information to town residents, Hoover said.

Hoover said getting the university to allow him to host his own show was easy. ‘‘I asked the question,” he said. ‘‘I actually asked the question before. I was going over there last year while someone else [a student] did their show, so it’s ongoing from last year. So now, instead of a student hosting show, it will be my own personal show. There will still be students involved, but I will be hosting the program. They’ll run the equipment and all that.”

The show’s content will center on issues that affect Emmitsburg residents.

‘‘What I want to do is talk about Emmitsburg issues related to Emmistburg or the north county other so, with [officials] from the state or county, to bring other people in to help us understand what’s going on [that affects us] from their level,” Hoover said. ‘‘Many times when the folks down in Annapolis make a decision or change a policy, it’s not always real well understood from the municipal level.”

The show, he hopes, will better explain a topic so the people of Emmitsburg are better informed of the issue while it is evolving, rather than just the result, Hoover said.

For example, when the county enacts a law requiring sprinklers, the show will explain, ‘‘Why did we get there? How did we get there? How does it affect the residents of Frederick County?” he said.

‘‘I hope to always have some other elected official or staff level [official],” Hoover said. ‘‘Occasionally, there will probably come a time when it’s just me talking to people over the radio about things that have happened in Emmitsburg over the last week or month.”

The radio show is ‘‘just one more tool to get people to hear what is really going on without having to go really out of their way,” Hoover continued.

While the press does cover the town, and the town has a Web site, Hoover said he thought residents were entitled to more.

‘‘Right now, we have a bimonthly paper for Emmitsburg, we have a weekly paper, The Gazette, and we have the Frederick News-Post, from which we get the least coverage,” he said. ‘‘With those papers, people are not hearing and seeing everything. So many people now don’t have cable T.V. The radio show is broadcast across the radio, as well as across the Internet. I think these days everybody is about convenience, and if it’s not convenient, most people are not going to do it. So, I think we need to provide as many ways to provide information as possible.”

Randy Gray, faculty advisor to the university’s radio station, said the show is a great idea all-around.

‘‘It’s a great idea just to have the Mount be a part of the Emmitsburg community,” he said. ‘‘His show is supposed to center on Emmitsburg events and local happenings, and that would be great for the Mount. We might be able to build on it, and expand it in the future.”

In addition to allowing students to practice their technical abilities and work with a politician, the show will expand their horizons outside the campus, Gray said.

‘‘I think it helps give the students a flavor [of Emmitsburg], a sense of their greater community,” he said. ‘‘...Eventually when they go off campus, they will know who some of the players are besides just the Mount professors.”