As a married thirty-something who enjoys K-Pop, I had never watched Arirang's After School Club. However, my curiosity had been piqued numerous times when speaking with K-Pop fans about their interactions with their favorite idols through the program. For the uninitiated, After School Club is a show on the English language network Arirang which reaches worldwide audiences through a live stream feed on YouTube and through broadcast on Arirang TV. After School Club encourages fans to contact the program during its airing through Twitter, with the the program's host Eric Nam and various English speaking idol co-hosts assisting in translating with the virtual audience and idol's responses. After School Club is like a futuristic American Bandstand in which fans from throughout the globe are granted the ability to communicate with the featured K-Pop stars.

During the 'Roll Call' segment, fans check in through Twitter with their location and a message to the featured guests. After School Club is multifaceted in that it allows for participation through SNS and 'studio audience' members who are preselected to video conference in. With a unique dynamic that is encouraging to international fans, After School Club has aided in helping K-Pop to become so ubiquitous amongst teens in North and South America. It only takes a few minutes of watching After School Club to realize how a program that allows for interaction with K-Pop stars in the English language has helped to fuel the Hallyu Wave.

My motivation for watching After School Club stemmed from the fact that I wanted to check out footage from the new subgroup Toheart. SHINee's Key and INFINITE's Woohyun, who are the members of Toheart,  were the featured artists on the March 18 episode of After School Club. Kevin of U-KISS co-hosted the episode alongside host Eric Nam. While Key and Woohyun may have slightly limited English, they interacted with the audience in a very heartfelt way. During the live stream of the episode, there were almost 1,500 viewers on YouTube with active participants that were predominantly from the United States, Mexico, Peru, and the United Kingdom. By the conclusion of the Twoheart episode of After School Club, I was hooked and wanted to check out the program's back catalog.

In addition to After School Club, Arirang TV will broadcast the upcoming Simply KPop concert which will take place in Shanghai.