KUTV draws student spirit
Early Friday morning, students and faculty members had the chance to showcase many of Utah State University’s achievements to a state-wide audience on KUTV Channel 2.
KUTV anchor Kelly Chapman, a former USU student, said she enjoyed the chance to come back and visit Logan and highlight USU on the station’s morning program.
“The students up here have so much spirit – far more than any other state school,” she said. “I don’t think people realize there are 20,000 students within a 10-mile radius. What could be better for student life?”
During the broadcast, USU was given four segments and seven teasers. Interviews during the broadcast included Randy Spetman and Mick Dennehy, from USU athletics, members of the football team and representatives from the engineering department and Aggie ice cream.
“The whole goal was to give the university some good exposure and hopefully give the students a good time and I think that was accomplished,” Tiffany Evans, director of the student involvement and leadership center, said. “We have so many alumni along the Wasatch front, and so hopefully they’re out there and it brought back their good old days and some enhanced pride in their alma matter.”
Featured during the teasers were members of the spirit squad, the pep band and nominees for Homecoming royalty.
“We got to talk about hands-on learning experiences that ranged from Aggie ice cream to moon buggies to experiments in space,” Whitney Wilkeson, USU media relations, said. “The over-all goal was to show viewers how many great things we have going on at Utah State.”
Students, including those representing athletics, the spirit squad, pep band and engineering department, as well as those who came just to show their spirit, began gathering at the Stan Laub Training Center at 5:30 a.m.
The station was not able to receive a signal at the training center however, and the broadcast was moved to the Spectrum.
A pancake and bacon breakfast and cash prices totaling $150 were offered as incentives for students to wake up early and come and be a part of the broadcast, Evans said.
“The only unfortunate thing was having to move, the students who showed up were great,” she said. “We figured that some prizes and food would be incentive but also keep the Aggie spirit and Aggie pride alive and well at such an early hour in the morning.”
Juan Franco, vice president for student services, said he was impressed with the student turn-out, especially considering the change of location and the early hour of the broadcast.
“I think it was marvelous they’ve had so much energy,” Franco said. “Students are so great, once you let them know something is going to happen, as you can see, they readily turn out. Which is amazing since many of them have been up since very early this morning and now they are heading to class.”
Most students said the motivation to come was the chance to show school spirit on television and eat free breakfast.
Josh Johnson, a member of the band and a junior in finance, said the free food was a great incentive but it was a nice opporuntiy to practice with the band on television.
“We’ve been in games where ESPN has come, but it’s not likey they’ve filmed us directly,” he said.
“I was curious to see how many people would show up at 5:30 in the morning, but people came,” said Cami Swap, a sophomore in international studies.
Prizes and activities were also used to keep the energy up during the breaks between news segments, Evans said.
“I think we were able to get our message across and our students helped us do that and had a good time in the process,” Wilkeson said.
Evans said the university knew about the broadcast eight to nine days in advance.
KUTV gives USU a spot on their morning show around Homecoming every year, Wilkeson said, but last year’s was held at the University of Utah where the two schools were having a cook-off.
“This year, we’re really happy they came up to Logan and made that effort and I think it really shows that Utah State is growing in regional recognition,” she said.
“I think [KUTV] likes the excitement and the turnout of the students. I think they like to visit us,” Franco said.
During one of the segments Chapman was asked to sample Aggie ice cream flavors and help judge an ice cream eating contest among three USU students.
Justin Griffeth, a junior in marketing, was declared the winner after eating an entire carton of strawberry cheesecake ice cream.
Coming in second, Zach “Alex” Ames, a freshman in business administration said he was grateful he was given the carton of vanilla.
“It made a lot easier because it’s such a plain flavor so I was just able to down eat.”
The third member of the competition, Melissa Marsh, an undeclared freshman said the opportunity to eat ice cream on live television was “exhilarating” and “a lot of fun.”
-bnelson@cc.usu.edu