Journalism and Communication Studies - WLU

Student DJ’s Are On the Air

communications — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 06:23:37 +0000

The long wait is finally over. Student DJs will return to the airwaves starting next week. Checkout our on air schedule to see when will will have DJs on the air. They will also be starting their blogs next week so make sure you checkout everyones page to see what is on their minds.

As usual we are streaming 24/7 so tune in and turn it up!

If you are interested in joining the WGLZ staff or receiving more information about the Communications program at WLU contact Jeff Pfister at jeff.pfister@westliberty.edu.

Recruiting in Charleston, WV

communications — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 06:07:25 +0000

Are you a sports nut? Considering a career in broadcasting? Join West Liberty Univesity sports broadcasting staff on Wednesday February 27 at the Charleston Civic Center as our WLU TV-14 student production crew broadcasts the WVIAC Basketball tournament. High school and community college students are encouraged to come out and meet current students & instructors.

Learn about the opportunities in the Broadcasting Program and see how you can develop your talent for the future. For more information about the Charleston visit contact: Edward Mitchem at 304-336-8955

WLU RECEIVES $75,000 GIFT FROM BORDAS AND BORDAS

communications — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 22:00:58 +0000

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012 BY MZAMBITO- Hundreds of West Liberty University students will benefit from a recent $75,000 gift from the Bordas and Bordas law firm of Wheeling.

“We are grateful to Jamie Bordas and appreciate his willingness to support higher education at West Liberty University. This money will greatly enhance our journalism and communications department and give our students an edge as they prepare for their professional careers. The students are very excited to work with the new technology that this gift is funding,” said Jason Koegler, WLU vice president of institutional advancement.

“We are pleased to partner with West Liberty University and to help students to develop their skills in broadcasting. Bordas and Bordas knows the value of college and the expense involved in providing students with up-to-date programs and technology and we want to support this work and the Ohio Valley community,” said Jamie Bordas, a partner in the firm, which has offices in both Wheeling and St. Clairsville, Ohio.

The Bordas and Bordas gift has already provided West Liberty with two new high definition cameras that will be put to use for the first time, this Saturday during the 1 p.m. football game when WLU Hilltoppers take on Fairmont State University at Fairmont. The resulting film will air (tape delay) at 10 p.m., Saturday on WLU-TV14.

“The ability to use these state-of-the-art cameras and gain hands-on work experience is invaluable to our broadcast students,” said Theresa Gretchen, executive director of WLU-TV14. The two high definition studio configured cameras offer real world experience.

Bordas and Bordas also will host a 30-minute talk show, “Bordas and Bordas Legal Review,” on a weekly basis that will focus on today’s legal issues. This new show will debut Monday, Sept. 24.

“I’m very happy to work with the students and the WLU broadcast program. It is our hope that our talk show will give the students a chance to practice their skills and add to their journalism experience,” said Bordas, who was a sports editor for the University of Notre Dame yearbook, while he was in college. Currently, 125 students and 26 crew members are active in the WLU broadcasting studios, which develop and produce more than 12 television shows weekly that are seen on Comcast Cable Channel 14. In addition, WLU-TV14 is streamed live via Flash technologies and the Internet to an unlimited number of viewers, which reaches 100,000 homes everyday.

WLU’s College of Arts and Communications is composed of the department of journalism, communication studies, visual arts and the department of music and theatre.

Broadcasting Students Work on Nationally Televised Games

communications — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:39:23 +0000

Three West Liberty University communications students were praised for their knowledge and professionalism when they recently worked on the national broadcast of a high school basketball tournament in Wheeling.

Samantha Gretchen, Britni Lindgren and Todd Ullom, led by WLU instructor and WLSN producer Chuck Scatterday, worked alongside ESPN professionals on the sports network’s broadcast of Cancer Research Classic games.

Dave Andrews, ESPN camera operator, said, “The girls were great as utes (utility workers). They knew what they were doing all night and had my back. It’s a great feeling to have when you’re busy staring down a viewfinder for three hours.”

The students’ enthusiasm impressed Dadja Roerig, a video operator. “They were quick to help and pitched in early and often,” she said.

Mike Krivens, operations producer, echoed that sentiment. “Todd was spot on both days. He had a good attitude and was fast to help when directed. He had no complaints and did the job, and they knew how to over/under cables. That’s ‘TV101’ and they had it covered. Good job!”

“Over/under” refers to a method of preparing television cables for storage. It is considered by the television industry the only proper way to coil cables, as it protects them and ensures that they will lay flat for their next use.

Jeff Habak, a freelance camera operator who photographed the basketball games for ESPN, told Scatterday, “Your students understood what it took to get the job done.”

Scatterday, who worked at ESPN for many years before joining WLU and its television operations, said he was pleased with the trio’s work. Working with the ESPN crew was an invaluable “real world” learning experience for the students, he noted.

The annual tournament features some of the top high school teams in the nation. Proceeds of the CRC tournament support Wheeling Hospital’s men’s health programs, undergraduate cancer research and medical physics programs.

McCullough Presents Scholarly research at National Conferences

communications — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:28:00 +0000

West Liberty University’s Ryan McCullough has a busy semester ahead of him. In addition to the communications instructor’s usual WLU courseload of oral communications, argumentation and debate, organizational communication and media ethics classes, and guiding the university’s forensics team, he will be presenting scholarly research at several conferences in 2012.

Last year, he and co-author Dan Mistich presented a paper, “Poststructural Prudence: Rethinking Phronesis Through Derrida,” at the National Communication Association’s convention in New Orleans. The research examined the works of Aristotle and the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. During the spring semester, he will present papers at the Appalachian Studies Association conference, the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association’s national conference and at the Rhetoric Society of America’s meeting.

“Participating in scholarship,” McCullough said, “makes me a better teacher. It helps me become more familiar with the literature and subjects the students will be studying.”

In addition to presenting their research at professional conferences, McCullough and Mistich have co-authored a chapter of a soon-to-be-published anthology about pop culture novelist, philosopher and essayist Chuck Klosterman, “Chuck Klosterman and Philosophy,” edited by Seth Vannatta and published by Open Court.

“The chapter we have written is, ‘Is that what you really want?’” McCullough explained. “It is about desire in Klosterman’s writings and how desire is communicated.”

In his third year of teaching at WLU, McCullough earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Marshall University.

WLU Students Contribute to Weather Channel Documentary

communications — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:39:24 +0000

Applying knowledge gained through their West Liberty University communications courses and acquiring valuable real-world experience in the process, Sam Miller and Seth Starkey recently returned to the West Liberty University campus after working on a Weather Channel documentary.

WLU professor Christian D’Andrea, who heads the university’s documentary filmmaking program, is the executive producer, creator and director of “Hurricane Hunters,” a new documentary series debuting on the Weather Channel in 2012. The Hurricane Hunters are an Air Force Reserve squadron based out of Biloxi, Miss., which flies planes into hurricanes to better understand them. The team obtains key pieces of meteorological data that can be gathered only by flying into the eye of a hurricane. The television series tracks their lives and their missions during the height of hurricane season.

He selected Miller and Starkey to work on the production in September. “We had what I would characterize as a very successful internship. It actually went beyond internship. I integrated Sam and Seth into the crew,” D’Andrea explained. He added that the film crew and Air Force personnel “began to look to Sam and Seth for insight into shots, help wrangling equipment, help managing characters and complex scene set-ups, and even executing shots and capturing critical moments.”

He noted, “The students were second unit directors on a number of scenes, empowered to make the call on key storylines, run interviews and stage shots.”

D’Andrea praised the students for their professionalism and job performance.

“They were trusted by all of us. We trusted them to go off and get shots and pickups we needed. We trusted them with our expensive equipment, including cameras with $40,000 lenses. We trusted them in the most important way of all – we trusted them with our story. We trusted them to professionally interact with and coordinate our key characters. I gave them key parameters, technical requirements and story insight for a scene or shot we wanted, and then often times we let them get it.”

The value of an internship like this, D’Andrea said, was that it offers much more than the typical internship. The students gained professional experience on a network television shoot. “They were empowered to be ‘hands-on,’ contributing to the production and collaborating on story design, shot choice and technical elements.”

Miller concurred, “This program is going to be unlike anything else West Liberty has. It’s in-field training, which is the best form of learning. It was an amazing experience.”

He added, “The film documentary program at WLU is going to allow students to help bring the heroes of everyday life, like the ones we met in Biloxi, to life.”

For more information, please visit the WLU documentary and film program website at www.westlibertyfilm.org/.

Ryan McCullough Presents at NCA

communications — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:22:07 +0000

Journalism and Communication Studies Instructor, Ryan McCullough presented research at the National Communication Association’s (NCA) 97th Annual Convention. The conference was held in New Orleans, Louisiana from November 17-20. The NCA Annual Convention is the largest and most prestigious communication studies-related convention in the country.

Mr. McCullough co-authored a paper with Daniel Mistich from the University of Georgia. Their paper, “Poststructural Prudence: Rethinking Phronesis Through Derrida,” was part of a panel entitled, “The Voice of Continental Philosophy in Rhetorical and Communication Theory.” The panel was sponsored by the Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division of NCA. Other members of the panel included Matthew Morris from the University of Texas at Austin, Michelle LaVigne from the University of San Fransisco, and Robert Green from Purdue University.

Mr. McCullough and Mr. Mistich received very positive responses from the audience members. “I believe we received some very valuable comments, criticisms, and feedback,” stated Mr. McCullough. “Based on the response to the presentation, I certainly believe we can extend this paper into a published article.”

WLU Broadcasting Students Visit Sunday Night Football on NBC

communications — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:26:49 +0000

Steelers-Ravens: The most heated rivalry in the NFL during the last decade. On any given Sunday, the traditional storylines already exist between these two NFL franchises. However, on the first Sunday in November, it was nothing but traditional as a select group of West Liberty University students participated in an all-access tour of NBC’s Sunday Night Football in America.

West Liberty University sports producer and adjunct professor, Chuck Scatterday, took the WLU students inside the inner production areas of the NBC compound. Scatterday, a former co-worker and longtime friend of NBC game producer, Fred Gaudelli, worked on ESPN’s Sunday Night Football and collaborated on other projects for ABC Sports.

Part of the all-access tour with Gaudelli was peering behind the doors of the five, 53-foot, expandable, state-of-the-art NBC mobile remote production units parked at Heinz Field.

Todd Ullom, WLU broadcasting student said, “Seeing up close, how large the NBC production trucks were compared to WLU’s truck was impressive.”

A team of 85-production members comprises the NBC crew that travels from city to city to cover Sunday Night Football. The WLU students watched all of rehearsal, which included reviewing show production elements and sales components. WLU student, Josh Benyo was “impressed with how much coordination goes into the event and how humble Mr. Gaudelli was with us.” Gaudelli told the students, “You don’t just start at the top; you have to work your way up and what your doing now at the WLU is a great place to start.”

The biggest change in sports television in the last 10 years, according to Gaudelli has been the advancement and implementation of computers. Gaudelli said, “It’s great you are getting an experience to be around Chuck and learn the basics of 4 and 5 camera sports. We’ve all been there at one point in our careers. Now you have an advantage, because you work with powerful computers every day of your life. I did have that when I started in TV.”

The highlight of the visit was when Dick Ebersol, Senior adviser for NBC Universal Sports, bumped into the WLU students, as the group exited the main truck to attend the highly intense pre-game production meeting.

The WLU students were front and center as Gaudelli and game director, Drew Esocof reviewed final game notes, late breaking storylines and team specific content that would likely make air during the NBC telecast.

Gaudelli reminded all camera personnel “this would be a harder hitting game than usual and cameras will need to watch for cut blocking from the first play, and it’s going to be a defensive game all night. We are calling it ‘4-Quarters of Fury’ for the telecast,” he added.

Esocof reminded camera operators to “look for all the Terrible Towels waving in the open of the show; it might look awesome from the blimp. The place will be loud, and it will be an intense crowd throughout the night; hold your replays one more second for that money shot.”

Nate Johnson, WLU student, said, “It was really cool how similar the NBC production meeting was compared to our class production meetings for WLU-TV productions. It’s not that much different from NBC, they just have more information and access – it’s unbelievable.”

The West Liberty University students and Scatterday thanked Gaudelli and Esocoff and joined them in a pre-game meal near the NBC compound with the rest of the SNF crew.

“This kind of access and teaching opportunity is exactly where we need to continue to take our sports broadcasting track at WLU,” said Scatterday. “Who knows if the next Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya or Fred Gaudelli is here at West Liberty University just waiting to be developed into talent.”

New Website and Programming for WGLZ Radio

communications — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:00:14 +0000

91.5 WGLZ Radio has a new website and new programing. The website features updated staff biographies, chatroll, sports schedule and live streaming on the internet.
The new programming starts with a top 40 song format, dubstep night, and the philosophical talkshow the “Idea” hosted by Tyler Rodgers. The Halloween 2011 Dubstep will happen live at Liberty Tavern with station DJ’s B.A. and Sikcryptic.
More information about WGLZ can be found at WGLZradio.com, @915wglz on Twitter or on Facebook.

WLUTV-14 reaches 100,000 Homes

communications — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:45:17 +0000

West Liberty University Television’s programming through Comcast Cable has again expanded as this week the cable station (Comcast Channel 14) operated by WLU now reaches all subscribers in Brooke County (W.Va.) as well Jefferson County (Oh.) covering Steubenville and most of its surrounding area.

Available on Comcast since 2007, WLU Television continues to reach Ohio, Marshall and Hancock Counties (W.Va.). Following the current expansion, WLU-TV now reaches an estimated 100,000-plus Comcast cable homes.

“We are very pleased to expand West Liberty University Television to now reach every Comcast subscriber in the northern panhandle of West Virginia as well as moving into the State of Ohio for the first time,” said WLU Vice President of Broadcasting Reid Amos. “We hope to continually grow, including further expansion of our cable station into additional areas where Comcast provides service in the Ohio Valley.”

With this expansion, WLU-TV adds Wellsburg and Follansbee to its list of municipalities. In Ohio, WLU’s Channel 14 now reaches Steubenville, Richmond, Brilliant, Mingo Junction, Steubenville Township, Wintersville, Bloomingdale, Island Creek, Cross Creek, and New Alexander, in addition to other areas.

West Liberty University Television has cultivated a unique role by providing a significant level of original programming. Every original program that WLU airs has a level of student involvement, from programming with crew opportunities for students to fully student produced shows.

“We have made every effort to provide benefit on multiple fronts as the operation of this station simultaneously provides a very unique experiential educational opportunity for our students, while providing valuable community-oriented programming that serves as a platform to promote and grow West Liberty University as part of our educational mission,” said Amos.

West Liberty Television’s programming includes: Inside West Liberty, hosted by WLU student Danielle Zacherl, At Issue: Week in Review, Concert in the Kitchen, and On Money among other shows. WLU-TV also airs programming provided by the television programs at Wheeling Park High School and John Marshall High School. Additionally, WLU-TV is the flagship for West Liberty University football and basketball broadcasts as part of the West Liberty Sports Network.