Future Voices Take Center Stage at Mostyn Media Camp 2026

HOUSTON — The future of the airwaves has officially arrived in the Space City.

The inaugural Mostyn Media Camp has wrapped up, concluding a transformative four-day, hands-on experience that gave local students an exclusive backstage pass into the world of radio broadcasting and digital media production.

The groundbreaking program launched through a powerful community partnership between Radio One Houston, attorney and community advocate Amber Mostyn of Mostyn Law, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, and the All for One Foundation. Over four intensive days, the initiative successfully turned local youth into the media executives, programmers, engineers, and on-air personalities of tomorrow.

Day 1: Laying the Foundation at Finnigan Park

The camp kicked off with high energy at the Finnigan Park Community Center. Amber Mostyn, Commissioner Rodney Ellis, and Radio One Houston’s Regional Vice President, Doug Abernethy, formally welcomed the eager cohort of students. After rolling out the program’s vision, organizers equipped every participant with official camp shirts and comprehensive media workbooks designed to guide them through creating their own radio stations from scratch.

Day 2: The Art of Station Building

On the second day, the theoretical met the practical. Inside their assigned groups, students stepped into corporate and creative roles, appointing their own General Managers, On-Air Talent, Sales Representatives, Marketing Directors, and Audio Engineers. Working collaboratively, each team brainstormed and finalized their station names, show concepts, target demographics, and programming formats.

Day 3: Elite Mentorship at Radio One Studios

Day three brought the students directly into the legendary Radio One Houston studios. Guided by the creative marketing team lead by Director, Jonathan Cook and promotions team leads Amir Diamond, and Jacoba Blackmon, the students received elite, first-hand training from the industry’s best:

• Programming Insights: Program Director Yonni Rude pulled back the curtain on the complexities of music scheduling and managing top-tier on-air talent.
• Audio Production: Production Manager BC shared with students how to make a commercial that is produced in-studio and played on air with music beds, sound effects, and voice overs.
• 97.9 The Box: JQue, Young Jas, JMac, Producer Bennett, Keisha Nicole, and GMan gave interactive studio tours and shared the raw, inspiring stories of their personal journeys into broadcasting.
• Majic 102.1: Radio legends AV, Madd Hatta, Kandi Eastman, and KG Smooth hosted a masterclass on resilience, detailing how to navigate a constantly changing industry.
• The Business of Radio: Director of Sales Judy Lakin led an interactive panel featuring Debra Guidry, Kamika Smith, Lesley Brotamonte, and Sales Manager Crystal Ragsdale. Students learned how advertising is sold, how to build creative client campaigns, and asked questions to sharpen their final station projects.

Day 4: Tech, Video Production, and Final Presentations

The final day was packed with high-stakes creativity and technical training, all fueled by the infectious music and vibes curated by DJ Tae Boogie and his trusted MC partner, Baby D.

Regional Online Editor Jamaal Bachelor shifted the focus to digital media. He taught the students how radio thrives in the online space and led each team in scripting, producing, and shooting their own viral Instagram promotional videos, which were showcased on the @979thebox Instagram platform.

Radio One Houston Chief Engineer David Ainsley, alongside engineers Michael “Chane” Deming and Cedric Turner, pulled back the curtain on the infrastructure of broadcasting. They gave students an inside look at how radio towers operate, what happens if lightning strikes a tower, and what it takes to keep a station on-air during power outages.

The camp culminated in a pitch room environment where the groups presented their finalized stations to a panel of media professionals. The creative results featured news, sports, and beauty platforms targeted directly at Houston teens—built for teens, by teens.

To seal the summer media experience, students received powerful words of affirmation from Amber Mostyn and Radio One Houston’s Doug Abernethy before being awarded plaques of completion and custom merch autographed by their favorite radio personalities.

The Spark Behind the Vision

While the four days were packed with memorable experiences, the entire initiative was born from a singular creative vision. Harrison Richmond, Marketing Manager of Mostyn Law, conceptualized the idea for the media camp. Richmond’s foundational concept forged the strategic community partnership between Mostyn Law, local leaders, and Radio One Houston, transforming an ambitious idea into a highly successful reality for the city’s youth.