College Broadcasting

Once in a while, we get a post on the Business and Marketing forum here on the COW asking advice for education. For example, should I go to college, film school, Full Sail, or just buy some gear when I graduate high school and start working.

Each of these options has its merits and pitfalls, and everyone's experience is unique. And there have been successes and disappointments all around.

Here is a snippet of my experience.

In the Spring of my Sophomore year at the University of Hartford, a graduate student named Chuck called a meeting for interested students. He was proposing that for the first time, a weekly newscast be broadcast on campus. This was 1992. Prior to 1992, there was no cable tv on campus, but a system had just been installed and the campus tv studio received a modulator for campus channel 2.

We came up with the clever name STN - Student Television Network, producing the weekly Channel 2 News.

But this was April, so school would soon be out for the summer. My Summer internship in 1992, amazingly enough, was news intern for the Midday News at WCVB in Boston. Serendipity strikes again!

My daily responsibilties at CVB were to be the producer's assistant. When I arrived at 8:30am, the rundown for the noon show was complete. I was to gather the tapes for stories which would be reused from an earlier broadcast, either the morning news or the previous evening's news. I was to write a cue sheet and order Chyrons for each story, and get these documents to the director, audio engineer and CG operator.

My next task was to cut new VO and VO/SOT pieces, either based upon stock footage, older stories or occasionally unused raw footage from the previous day. The editor actually did the cutting, but I was to make the editing decisions. I was a bit slow to get the hang of it, but it was excellent training. And it is quite impressive that the producer of a newscast in such a big market gives an intern such responsibility.

Again, cue sheets, CG, put tape in VTR room.

With stories cut, around 11am the scripts for the anchors began printing. I don't know if they still use these, but they had a 5 ply dot matrix form feed script. Each ply was a different color, one for each anchor, the producer, director and audio guy. I also had to make 8 copies or so of the final rundown and get this to various people.

One weekend I was lucky enough to hang out with a senior reporter for the day, helping him cover an apartment fire and a speech by George Bush the First - I logged the speech as it came down from the satellite, then we interviewed a retired general, I found stock footage from the Gulf War #1 and helped him cut the story in the online bay. 

At the end of the Summer, I actually had a pretty decent idea of how to produce a newscast.

Good thing, because in September 1992, our group began rehearsals for our first live show in Spring 1993. At the same time, my second internship at WFSB sent me out in the field every week with a different reporter. I have blogged in more detail about this previously.

Today it the 15 year reunion for STN, so I have been thinking about the great experiences, and the lack of sleep. Here are a few memories:

A weekly newscast doesn't sound so difficult. After all, some colleges have a daily newscast, and of course broadcast stations, even in small markets, do this several times a day. Well we were just starting out, everyone had classes, jobs, internships and girlfriends (well, not everyone), and we only had one editing bay, so stories would be cut whenever time was available, often at 3am the night before the show. We had an old ratty sofa bed in the editing room, and this was used many times (for sleeping of course!).

As News Director, I took on some of the more serious stories. One such story was faculty layoffs. The night before our show, I had to get an interview for my story. Knowing that the University President Tonkin was teaching nearby, I staked out the auditorium with a camera crew and got in his face as he came out fo the room. "Oh, it's you," was his first response, but he gave me the sound bite I needed.

When the Student Government gave us our initial funding, $15,000 bought us 2 S-VHS camcorders, tripods, microphones, an SVHS player for editing stories to U-Matic tape, an IFB system and some tapes. We relied upon the generous tv studio director for all of our other gear.

Since I left upon graduation in 1994, the university has realized what an asset STN had become, and funding has never ceased. In 1995 they upgraded to better SVHS cameras, and a few years later DVCPRO cameras and decks replaced the lower end gear. They now do remotes on campus, broadcast sporting events and get press credentials for major events such as the Presidentialinaguration, political conventions and the World Series.

Equipment aside, which is always changing, what I really took away from this experience is the ability to think on my feet, work against a deadline, work as part of a team, be a leader and manager, learn new skills and have fun doing it. Indeed, the same skills needed for any job in this industry.

If you are a prospective college student, current one, parent or someone who chose not to go to college, you will have your own approach to learning and honing your craft. This was my experience, and it was a good one.

Thanks for reading.

Mike