A-TV reaches new viewers
Student-produced and anchored Aggie Television is now available for viewing on three Web sites, two campus TV networks and on basic cable.
A-TV News was originally shown only to campus housing, said associate professor of broadcast journalism Penny Byrne. Within just the past two years, the two programs have gone online and now to a local TV station, KUTA Channel 8.
“We’re really pleased about the increased opportunities for exposure that we have experienced recently,” Byrne said.
A-TV News has two programs, newscast on Mondays and Cache Rendezvous (a magazine program) on Thursdays.
Penny and her husband Dean Byrne, broadcast lab director, train 16 students on the basics of broadcasting from anchoring to producing. Students handle cameras, edit video and operate the studio machinery.
“We are far more hands-on than most universities,” Dean Byrne said. “Our students do everything. There’s not a single control room studio job that students don’t do.”
He said most universities have a professional staff that produces the newscast and sends it out, and most students don’t even touch equipment until their senior year.
Penny Byrne said by having the students learn just as much about anchoring as producing is paying off.
“The reputation for producing is now very strong,” she said. Penny said when students graduate from USU and tell their future employers that they want to be a producer, the people believe them.
A-TV News is online at the journalism and communication online newspaper, the Hard News Cafe, on its own Web site at www.usu.edu/atvnews and now at the Northern Utah Television Web site at www.northernutahtv.com.
Northern Utah Television’s founder, Stephanie DeGraw, started the online news outlet last year in an effort to give northern Utah a voice. DeGraw, who has been in broadcasting for 25 years, started the site after her plans to keep up a northern Utah TV station fell through.
She said she wanted to give the students at USU and Weber State an outlet for their programming as well as provide programming that would relate to people’s interests in northern Utah.
To build the site and be able to stream video “was expensive and time consuming, but I think it’s worth it to offer something to the community,” DeGraw said.
The site features programing for local issues, arts and entertainment, sports, business, city council, public debate, high schools and college student broadcast news.
“We want to have this become the community TV station. It just happens to be online,” DeGraw said.
Everyone can go to the site and upload their own programming, but it will not be officially posted until the content it is screened by DeGraw.
“I wanted to screen it so my viewers know that it’s family-friendly and there’s not going to be anything inappropriate on there,” she said.
She said she wants the Web site to be really interactive, so she has included comment boxes below all of the broadcasts.
“I’m really excited because I think students would be more likely to print their own news,” she said, noting if someone wants to film a local rock band and post that in the entertainment section, they can.
“We can give them exposure, and it helps the site to always have lots of interesting, fresh content all the time,” DeGraw said.
She said through the Web site www.statcounter.com, they have 200 visitors from around the world daily, and those who come once come back and stay online.
Northern Utah Television is based in Ogden, at 205 26th Street Ste. 23, on the corner of 26th Street and Grant Street. Its studio is open to individuals who would like to produce commercials or programs. It also has a green screen for anyone to use for about $25 an hour.
Another outlet for A-TV News even more locally is the new TV station, KUTA8. KUTA8’s station Manager Courtney Western said he is looking for local broadcasts to air on his station. A-TV News currently runs daily at 12:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. For more information on KUTA, visit them at 3006 N. Main Street or online at www.kuta8.com.