A television show produced by MSU students is being aired over a local network station for the first time.
UPN-Mississippi, a sister-station to WCBI-the local CBS affiliate in Columbus, has chosen to air “This Week @ MSState” at 5 p.m. Sundays.
The show is student-made with the help of the University Television Center, which also runs the show on MSTV-30.
For the format of the show, students take news from the University Relations newsletter also called “This Week @ MSState” and put it into broadcasting format.
The show includes campus news, sports, interviews, features and two special segments called “One-on-One with Rebecca Kates” and “Points of Pride.”
“We’re really excited that it’s being shown on UPN-MS and are proud to expand it from 15 minutes to a half hour,” operations director Ralph Olivieri said.
“Students who are working on the show will be able to put on their rsum that they worked for a network that reached thousands of households,” said Karyn Brown, broadcasting instructor.
MSTV-30, where all student programming is aired, reaches approximately 9,000 households in Oktibbeha County, but UPN-MS reaches Starkville, Tupelo, Columbus, New Albany, Philadelphia, Eupora and many more cities, she said.
“Therefore, it is great publicity for our students, the communication department, the College of Arts and Sciences and the university,” Brown said.
Senior broadcasting major Chelsey Babiarz is the director; Ryan Rodriguez is the technical assistant; and Kelsy Evans is the feature reporter.
Students in the broadcast performance class rotate positions to provide each student with as much airtime as possible.
No money is being exchanged, but the students say they are grateful for the opportunity provided.
Derek Rogers, UPN-MS (WCBI-DT) marketing and sales director, and Dutch Terry, WCBI news director, went to Brown with the idea for the show wanting students to gain the “real world” experience of local programming.
“This is a win-win situation for everyone,” Rogers said. “It’s good for us to expose UPN to students on campus and adds to our partnership we have with the university.”