WMJF-LP is low powered terrestrial Student television station broadcasting on channel 16 UHF in the Baltimore, Maryland area. Although it bears the legal -LP suffix in its call letters, it is a Class A television station, a slight upgrade from low-power status. The station is owned and operated by Towson University. It became the last station in Baltimore to sign on, when it did in 1991.
In the mid-1990s the station served as the local affiliate for The WB, until its move to WNUV in January 1998. After a brief stint as an America One affiliate, WMJF flipped to MTV2 in 2004. WMJF is also a CNN student bureau and is one of only two in the country.
WMJF-produced programming is generally seen weekday evenings from 5PM to 6PM, and Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights from 9PM to 12 Midnight. Syndicated shows are seen weekdays from 5PM to 7:30PM, with the actual times pending on student-produced programs scheduled; syndicated programming includes a National Lampoon hour block of programming three times a week, and federally-mandated Educational / Informational (E/I) programming for children. All other times are filled with MTV2 programming, especially on weekends and student holidays. A full schedule is found on the station's website.
On the Screen
WMJF currently runs a wide variety of programming. News, Sports, and Entertainment are the three main categories of WMJF programming.
News
16News- WMJF's weekly news program bringing students campus, local, national, and international news that matters to them.
Sports
Towson Sports Weekly- A weekly roundup of all things sports at Towson.
Towson Gameday- A show focusing on the ins and outs of Towson football.
Full Court Press- Basketball is the focus here with full analysis of every game and previews of the upcoming game.
Face Off- Argument gets ugly as campus sports analyists debate local and national sport topics
Heatin it Up- WMJF's own Daniel Abraham talks to Towson's sports' all stars and what is heatin him up.
Entertainment
Towson Exposure- Student made film and video projects take center stage in this hour long program showcasing Towson's best and brightest
News from the Fringe- "When news breaks, we blame the other guy" in this political and news satire show.
Civil Disobedience- No one is safe from this brand of sketch comedy
College Night- Leno, O'Brien, Letterman; They've got nothing Phil Kessell, Towson's own late night host.
Film School - WMJF's first continuous sitcom about the lives of film students.
Press Start - Video game review show for the new generation.
At the Movies - Movie reviews for the college student.
A.R.G. (Alternate Reality Game)- Narrative based show chronicling the mystery behind an ARG that is brought to campus. "It's more fun when it starts feeling realer than real."
Behind the Scenes
WMJF is a 90% student run organization. Under the tutelage of faculty advisors, Dr. John MacKerron and Dr. David Reiss, Towson University students experience not only the production aspects of a television station, but also the day-to-day experiences that running one brings with it.
The Executive Board
The student leaders of WMJF are the people who are in charge of making station wide decisions to hopefully better the station as a whole. The executive board consists of five elected positions and any other appointed positions that the original five deem necessary to help run the station.
Equipment Used
WMJF, while more of a student organization than an actual television, does have some equipment that might rival that of professional affiliate television stations.
Editing Equipment
Two iMac G5 computers each running a copy of Avid Express Pro
One Mac G5 Tower running a copy of Avid Express Pro
One Mac G3 Tower running a copy of Media100
Camera Equipment
2 Canon XL-1 Cameras equipped with professional audio (XLR) shoulder mounts
1 Panasonic DVX100A 24P Camera
2 Panasonic DVX100B 24P Cameras
2 JVC GY-DV500 Cameras
WMJFNow
WMJFNow was launched in August 2006, after a beta run the previous spring. The program is run using Google's Video feature to host the videos. WMJFNow is the creation of webmaster and station president, Christopher Taydus with help from many station members including Josh Eisenberg, Joe Achard, and Diego Torres. It was created to help find a new audience for the station. Taydus was quoted as saying, "I have a friend who goes to Northeastern who has been watching our sitcom 'Film School. We've even had guys from other countries watching." When asked about the numbers that some shows were receiving, Josh Eisenberg said, "In the college television market those are incredible numbers to be receiving. It used to be just a five-mile radius, and now anyone can see it."
Half-Way There Festival
The Half-Way There Festival is an annual film festival sponsored and hosted by WMJF. It was created by Josh Eisenberg with help from Christopher Taydus and Professor Greg Faller. It is held December of every year and gets its name from the fact that it's held half way between the previous and the next Media Arts Festival (Towson University's Electronic Media and Film Department's Annual Film Festival). In a twist on traditional media festival formats, WMJF-TV lets the audience vote to choose the winners at the Half Way There Festival.
Lambda Kappa Tau, Towson's Media Arts Fraternity, took over running the festival in Fall 2008.