The Riverside Student Center’s Aiden and Cassandra Donovan come from an exciting family of broadcaster/podcasters. Their parents, Chris and Evelyn, are involved in the industry themselves, and Aiden launched his own podcast, Aiden’s Arcade Academy, last fall. Aiden reviews video games, father Chris said, and “he really impresses us with some of the info he has stored in his brain.” Shows are less than 10 minutes long; he also has a YouTube Channel, The Boy Aiden.
Aiden, 11, and Cassandra, 9, are in grades 6 and 3 in the Center’s Mosaic program. They take Center classes three days a week, and are home two days a week. Chris said they chose Springs because “it gave us the freedom to be able to explore other interests for our kids and our lives without the missing out on any school.”
He added that it is “a real luxury of having the ability to be anywhere and be able to still keep them involved with school work.”
Chris and wife Evelyn Erives host a variety of podcasts. They can broadcast from home, or they have a “kit” they can take with them anywhere and broadcast on the road. Chris also has a platform, the This is Funner Network, which allows him to host other podcasts. One, for example, is a sports podcast, “Sports Fix with Stix,” hosted by a Seattle friend who goes by the name Stix, Chris is co-host. Another is “Listen to This,” a music podcast hosted by Eric Leckey. Eric plays music and offers a history lesson about each song. Chris said, “It’s really a good show to teach kids about music without telling them.”
This is Funner is Chris’s business, a production company that specializes in audio production. He and wife Evelyn have 35 years of radio and voiceover experience between them. Evelyn has a radio background, broadcasting as part of the morning show at 99.1 KGGI-FM for the past 16 years. She has been reporting the news, entertainment, and experiences in her own life since age 16.
She and Chris co-host a podcast, “ConversEAT With US,” which she describes as “an extension of our family’s conversations around our dinner table. We have some of the best conversations just being us, and now we record them and share.”
The Donovan family is active in raising funds for charity; oldest daughter Juleen, 17, for example, was nominated for “Student of the Year” of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for her support of that organization.
Visit the This is Funner website for links to various shows in which the family produces.
