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Show Page 2 The Tfmnderbird 1983 Tuesday Novem6er 29, Student Cal Rollins is one of many uiho get practical experience on the colleges switcher. Hell get practical application as well, through the colleges new broadcast agreement between SUSC and KDL-Tlocated in St. George. Associate Professor of Communication Don Godfrey directs SUSCs telecommunication emphasis. state-of-the-a- rt V Television class Communication programs growing does it for real SUSC soon to become media distribution center for southwest Utah News is produced by students by Laura Wearing Nearly two years ago, SUSC was awarded some $197,000 in grants from the National Telecommunications Agency to purchase TV equipment. Up to now, the equipment has been used primarily in classroom settings. But this quarter, thanks to an agreement between the college and KDL Television in St. George, SUSC students have taken to the air and entered the homes of more than 5,000 people in southern Utah. Earlier this month, the students involved with Don Godfreys television news and broadcasting class were featured in the inaugural Color Country Weekend News program. Now the program will be a weekly Sunday broadcast on channel 55 out of St. George. The program was established by Godfrey, who spoke to the management of KDL Channel 55 to discuss the possibility of the program last month after repeated attempts to open a line with Cedar City Cable had failed due to the lack of lines. The response from the KDL management was positive. The interest which they generated sent both KDL and the communications department eagerly to work. In the process of three weeks KDL found a place in their program for the new broadcast and the students were ready to go on the air. According to Godfrey, the new program is designed to provide southern Utah and St. George with an independent news program that deals with local news. Both Godfrey and the KDL management agreed that the program was needed. Currently, the only news programs come from Salt Lake City and don't deal with the smaller communities. "The program is to p events, report on news and to deal with the things other news programs wont cover, said Godfrey. The program is student directed and produced, and students are responsible for the news content, with Mark Wade and Tracy Dewsnup acting as The program will be beneficial to the students, said Godfrey, because it provides them with a realistic learning experience. programming available at the university. All the major advances and uses of the growing telecommunications program are coordinated through a telecommunications committee chaired by Pauline Nelson and made up of faculty and staff members.Pearson readily pointed out that it is certainly not a show. We work together on it, coordinating all telecommunications with other departments and how they want to use it. It provides a service for the entire campus. And this microwave link-u- p is only one small part of the growing television program which began in - one-ma- n 1972. The equipment that is now used bears little resemblance to the outdated equipment the television program began with,- due to a large federal grant the communication department was able to obtain from the efforts of local agencies and individuals who contributed to the cause. Speaking of the quality of equipment now available, Pearson said, Were ahead of most schools our size. Utah State University, a much larger institution, is still ahead of SUSC, but with prospects of more equipment Pearson expects the program to be ahead of theirs within a year. The past effectiveness of the program is attested to by the success in the industry of many of its graduates. Fred Esplin, for example, was a graduate of the early television program at SUSC and now serves as station manager at KUED in Salt Lake City. Others have gone on to work for KSL, NBC and KCPX. Many other advancements and improvements are in the planning stages, reported Pearson. Among those are the new studio facilities that will be built in the forthcoming Special Events Center. That move will take them from extremely limited facilities they now occupy in the basement of the library, to a much larger, better equipped and engineered set of facilities including a production studio, scenery storage area and several editing booths. Possibilities of getting a low power television broadcasting facility or a channel on local cable television are also being explored at present. Its an exciting era, an era of transition, said Pearson. - |
