The Communication Department is housed in Fine Arts Hall and the state of the art Media Arts Center. The buildings are connected by the historic Kelly Theater and include the divisions of Art, Music, and Communication.
Media Arts Center
The Media Arts Center, a $3.5 million addition that was completed in 2006, includes the WLTV Television Studio and production areas, several television production and editing labs, a recording studio, music “midi” lab, a graphic design studio, and a remote production van.
Faculty offices and office space for television staff not connected to the communications division are also housed here.
Television Studios – WLTV Channel 14
Created in August 2007, West Liberty Television WLTV – 14 reaches over 55,000 cable households in Hancock, Ohio, and Marshall Counties, W.V. via Comcast Cable. Live streaming is also available.
WLTV is an external relations operation of West Liberty University carrying the moniker “Community Television.” The station airs programming produced in our new state of the art studios, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year.
MAC Lab
The digital design Mac Lab located in the new Media Arts Center is an absolute epicenter of technology. The lab received its second major upgrade in the summer of ’13 and now boasts more than 15 impeccable MAC towers capable of creating the most advanced projects. Each work station is equipped with a large flat screen monitor and the latest design software featuring Adobe Creative Suite 5.5.
Faculty Offices
Many faculty members’ offices are housed in the three buildings that create the Art and Communication Departments. Faculty offices can be found in the Fine Arts Hall and in the Media Arts Center. A complete list of offices are posted in the main entrance of Fine Arts/Kelly Theater. Please see the Directory for a detailed list.
Professor Christian Lee established WGLZ in 1992, a student-run organization serving 15,000 listeners in the West Liberty area. The studio is located on the first floor of the College Union and boasts a daily format that varies according to campus activities, DJ preferences, and campus life.
Three paid student positions help facilitate operations, 24 hours a day, with live announcers broadcasting from 7 a.m. – 10 p.m. and automated programming overnight. The station operates at 91.5 MHz with a power of 150 watts.
The Trumpet
While the journalism major provides students with current theories and practices, it is The Trumpet that allows our students to get the hands on practical experience for a rewarding career in journalism. In the classroom, students learn about reporting techniques, interviewing skills, basic and specialized writing skills and are able to put those skills into practice by designing and producing the student The Trumpet.
Classrooms
There are many classrooms and class/meeting spaces available for use in the Fine Arts Building and the Media Arts Center. The combination of the buildings are, arguably, the busiest classroom spaces on campus. A student entering West Liberty as a freshman, and graduating four years later, cannot elude spending time in the Art and Communication Department. Many of the classrooms and facilities are equipped with state of the art computers, projectors, and sound equipment to enhance the students’ learning functions and to add a technological component to the traditional setting of classroom learning and lecture.