Buckeye TV is the student television station of The Ohio State University. It was founded on October 21, 2001, as a student organization. The station is currently an academically-supported laboratory housed in the OSU Department of Theatre. The station produces original programming and content created by students, and serves as the broadcasting outlet for students interested in television and related careers.
Station History
For most of its first year, the station held weekly planning meetings, Sundays at 9 p.m. in Stecker Lounge. Four undergraduate students were initially involved in the station's planning process, including Frank Sasso, who served as the first General Manager; Dave Plantz, first vice president of programming; Jarrod Weiss, vice president of marketing; and Paul C. Forsgren, chief engineer. Support for the station was initially provided by William H. Hall, then-vice president of Student Affairs at Ohio State; UNITS, the university's telecommunications department; and RHAC, the university's Residence Halls Advisory Council. These individuals and organizations provided facilities, equipment, and funding for the station. The station's first productions included a morning talk show pilot called "Wake the Buck Up", an interview program called "Campus Close Up", and a USG presidential debate aired Wednesday, April 17, 2002, as preview of what to expect from the station. That would be the only programming to air on the channel that year.
Due to logistical difficulties, the station delayed its autumn 2002 launch until the new year. "BUCK-iTV" launched on-air on February 3, 2003, on UNITS cable channel 19. Launch shows included: "Buckeye News Update", "The Collin and Joe Show" (sketch comedy), "Kollege" (soap opera, now sitcom), "P.W.C. Explosion" (Local Wrestling), "Music On Campus" and "Straight Talk Live" (political / talk). The station has rebranded and changed its channel spelling twice since launch, switching to "BUCKITV" in winter quarter 2004 and settling on "Buckeye TV" in 2005.
Once a student organization funded by OSU's student activity fee, the station began with initial academic support from the Department of Theatre and Daniel Boord, then a professor of video arts in the department. The station offered various independent study credits through the Theatre Department, and was eventually integrated into the department as a student laboratory in winter quarter 2006. This also allowed for the appointment of the first full-time program coordinator, Dave Fisher, who eventually took over the daily operation of the station for the student general managers.
Station Management
Overall management and operational responsibility for the station is held by a full-time employee, Dave Fisher, who serves as the Buckeye TV coordinator. Dave began his duties in January 2006, and splits his time between the station and teaching production courses in the OSU Department of Theatre, which is ultimately responsible for the station and its operations. Fisher is the first paid staff member at Ohio State to work with the student station on a full-time, employed basis. Previously, Buckeye TV had been managed by a student president and general manager from its founding on October 21, 2001, to March 2006, when the last student general manager finished his tenure.
Previous General Managers of Buckeye TV:
Frank Sasso (co-founder) : 2001-2002
David A. Plantz (co-founder) : 2002-2004
Paul C. Forsgren (co-founder): 2005-2006
Executive Management
In addition to the faculty advisor, daily operations at the station are supervised by the operations staff, and the station manager as well as student teaching assistants.
Programming Management
Programming on Buckeye TV is produced by a variety of student members.
Operations and Production
The technical side of production is handled by the Division of Production, Department of Operations. Management of Production includes:
The technical operations of Buckeye TV are continually improving, both on a personnel and equipment standpoint. At present time the station uses a variety of DV cameras for acquisition, including Panasonic AG-DVC15s, AG-DVC80s, and AG-DVC30s. Packages and shows are completed in post-production on two Avid Xpress Pro workstations. During summer quarter 2006, the station built and equipped a new studio control room and expanded its production space, creating two distinct studios. The control room features an Ampex AVC-33 production switcher, a 30 input video switcher featuring 3 M/E busses, and luma/chroma keying capabilities. Additional control room equipment includes a Mackie CFX20 audio board, Telex intercom system, and various video monitors. The new production studios feature Sony MXC-3000 cameras and a teleprompter system on two of the three cameras.
Engineering Staff
The engineering department encompasses both traditional broadcast engineering as well as information technology. Buckeye TV works to integrate the two as much as possible, keeping the station of the forefront of the information technology revolution in broadcast television.
Programming
Buckeye TV produces original programming to fill its schedule. Current programming includes a weekly news journal, sports update, music interview / update show, sitcom, Sci-Fi drama, live sports broadcasts, and more. In addition to original station programming, Buckeye TV is a charter affiliate of OSTN, the Open Student Television Network, a national television network based in Cleveland, OH that is programmed with student-produced content submitted by member stations.
News
One of the first types of programming shown on Buckeye TV (then known as BUCK-iTV) in spring 2002 was a daily two-minute news update. From these humble beginnings, Buckeye TV spawned a news department that quickly became the largest of all Buckeye TV departments, and they began to produce a daily 6 p.m. newscast. After a variety of changes, a new weekly news program, Buckeye TV News Weekly, began production in spring 2005. Buckeye TV News Weekly remains the flagship production of Buckeye TV.
On November 4, 2008, Buckeye TV News produced live coverage of a Presidential election. Under the direction of Peter Wolf, reporters Donnie Clark, Anthony Scaglione, Tyler Mitchell, Ben Fox, Heather Hope, Margaret Stahl, Jenna DiCicco and Jonathan Terry went live for an hour and a half covering the election. Previously, the station produced an election news special in the fall of 2004 that featured a live remote shot from the Ohio Union as well as in-studio analysts.
Sports
Buckeye TV has been actively pursuing sports programming since its inception, and will continue to seek out opportunities to produce high quality broadcasts of Ohio State sports. As national programming contracts preclude Buckeye TV from showing football or men's basketball games, the station has chosen to focus its efforts on both interview and analysis programming, as well as the production of some of the sports at OSU that are not as well known. In spring 2005, Buckeye TV rented a local production truck and produced a broadcast-grade OSU baseball game program to rave reviews. The station hopes to secure funding in the future to produce more programming of this nature. Current sports programming includes a basketball analysis show and The Sports Perspective, an analysis show that encompasses a variety of sports topics.
Entertainment
Most of the sitcom and feature programs on the station are produced by an affiliated production company, known as the OSU Film and Video society. OSU F&V produces programming for the station in exchange for airing of such programming on the channel, and the productions include a college-oriented sitcom, Kollege, as well as a sci-fi program, X3i, and various other specialty programming throughout the year. The station additionally produces a comedy call in show, known as Backtalk Live, which features three hosts, supplemented by regular guest hosts, who take phone calls, provide skits and preproduced segments, and "off the cuff" humor in a packaged format.
The Campus Report
During 2008, The Campus Report, a comedy show in the style of the Colbert Report, claims to be the longest running show in Buckeye TV history. Donnie Clark, the lead anchor and head writer of the show, has had notable guests, including Miss Ohio Roberta Camp, football player Archie Griffin, hockey player R.J. Umberger, Senator John Glenn, CNBC's Mad Money host Jim Cramer and zookeeper Jack Hanna appear on the show. "The Campus Report" has also created special videos at the request of Ohio State President Gordon Gee for distribution among the student body. One such video, "Study Team Delta", has received over 10,000 views on YouTube.
Music
Music is a division of programming at Buckeye TV and the music division focuses their efforts on producing "Music on Campus", a local artist interview show. Music on Campus features news and commentary on the world of pop music today, as well as interviews and performances by local groups and major bands that visit the Columbus, Ohio area. The department also works with local and national artists on showing music videos, as well as producing live musical segments.
Weather
As we all know, weather is a huge driving force for any local news programming. Allison Chinchar and Andrew Buck Michael began the weather department for Buckeye TV in the Fall of 2006. Since then the program continues to grow on a yearly basis. Apart from doing daily forecasts during the week, the weather department has put together a few shows to answer questions of fellow students pertaining to weather, and also spotlight the Annual Ohio Severe Weather Symposium hosted by the Ohio State Meteorology Club. While internships allow students to learn the processes of a station, nothing beats getting experience and repetitions in front of the green screen, which is what Buckeye TV definitely provides to students.
Arts and Culture
Buckeye TV is working to start producing arts and culture programming, and will be focusing its efforts on performances by the School of Music as well as drama from the Department of Theater.
Academic Laboratory
Buckeye TV was originally founded as a student organization at Ohio State, based under the Division of Student Affairs. OSU soon found that operating a fully functional television station as a student organization was not economically viable, and sought out a "home" for the station under the Division of Academic Affairs. An agreement was reached with the Executive Dean of the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, School of Communication, and Department of Theatre to house the station under academic affairs, in the Department of Theatre. The station is set to be an integral part of a proposed interdisciplinary minor in Media Production and Analysis, soon to be offered at the university. The station thus has ceased to function as a student organization and is now a functional academic laboratory, similar in structure and organization to The Lantern, OSU's student newspaper and journalism laboratory.
Buckeye TV Alumni in TV, radio, film, and other media
Elizabeth Applegate '03 - Executive Producer, KTLA, Los Angeles, CA
Colin Lawson '03 - Production, Mills James Productions, Columbus, OH
Neil Sika '03 - Sports Announcer, Columbus Crew, Big Ten Network, SportsTime Ohio, ONN, Columbus, OH
Joshua Fisher '04 - Owner, MacMediaEnt Music Management and Marketing, Los Angeles, CA / Manager, MES Management, ATL, GA
Anthony Lima '04 - Sports Anchor, Reporter News 10 Now, Syracuse, NY
Anne Allred '04 - Weekday Mornings & Noon Anchor, WHDH-TV, Boston, MA
Olivia Dangler '04 - Executive Producer, WXIN-TV, Indianapolis, IN
Nicole Denman '04 - Producer, WCMH-TV, Columbus, OH
Eric Egan '04 - Anchor, Reporter, WCIV-TV, Charleston, SC
Dave Plantz '04 - Senior Promotion Producer, WBNS-TV, Columbus, OH
Dhara Shah '04 - Anchor and Reporter, TV Asia, Newark, NJ
Leigh Ann Woodbury '04 - Anchor, WVVA-TV, Bluefield, WV
Joshua Keeran '04 - Sports Editor, The Wapakoneta Daily News, Wapakoneta, OH
Christina Sens '05 - Reporter, WTVJ-TV, Miami, FL
Andy Long '06 - Assignment Editor, WCMH-TV, Columbus, OH
Ryan Scott '06 - Communication Coordinator, American Electric Power & Freelance Camera Operator - Columbus, OH
Corey Spring '06 - Scout, Netscape.com, Entertainment Editor, UWeekly, Columbus, OH
Reyna Vanessa Doyle '06 - Reporter/Anchor, Clear Channel Stations WKKJ-WCHI-WBEX-WSRW, Chillicothe, OH
Adam Clements - Reporter, WLWT-TV, Cincinnati, OH
Kelly Gilmartin '07- News Anchor, WHIZ-TV, Zanesville, OH
Megan Hall '07 - Reporter, WOHL-TV, Lima, OH
David Landreman '07 - Web Development Engineer, WBNS-TV / The Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, OH
Andrew Roth '07 - Integration and Development Engineer, WBNS-TV, Columbus, OH
Julie Van Eman '07 - News Reporter, KNOE-TV, Baton Rouge, LA
Ken Hathaway '08 - Digital Content Developer, Zuffa: Ultimate Fighting Championship, Las Vegas, NV
Andrew Schwisow '08 - Director/Technical Director, KGAN, Cedar Rapids, IA
Allison Chinchar '08 - Meteorologist, WKRN-TV, Nashville, TN
Andrew Buck Michael '08 - Meteorologist, WKEF-TV, WRGT-TV, Dayton, OH
Mark Stitz '08 - Meteorologist, KLST-TV, San Angelo, TX
Dylan Scott '09- Reporter, KSFY-TV, Sioux Falls, SD
Cara Shirley '09 - Producer, WISE/WPTA-TV, Fort Wayne, IN
Rob Sneed '09 - Reporter, KHOG/KHBS-TV, Rogers, AR
Rob Munoz '10 - Reporter, KSNV-TV, Las Vegas, NV