From last week's posts, it would appear that a lot of the problems I encountered in the Radio/TV Department at Eastern New Mexico University had to do with the choices I made at that time. This is partially true. However, I would like to use today's post to point out that I had a lot of great opportunities to prepare me for the real work at ENMU.
As I mentioned last week, ENMU had an outstanding reputation for its Radio/TV department. They would make use of the latest technology to put on a quality newscast and local PBS and NPR programming.
They had two TV studios in the Broadcast Center, one that was strictly for use by the students. The equipment in there was older, but still very useful in learning the basics. Once you got a grip on the old equipment, it was easy to learn the new stuff.
The FM station, also located in the Center, was automated, with the exception of live NPR programming. Once you learned the ropes, it was fairly easy to run and you were able to get other projects around the station accomplished. I never worked on the board operator side of that. I only worked in the News department, but saw how everything worked. For the most part, the board operators just sat around and chatted. One person said all they did at night was talk about sex during the shift.
The TV News department had an exceptional faculty, who really knew the importance of journalism and how it related to presentation on TV. There were several classes dedicated to learning how to write the news and produce video segments for the newscast.
They also had the PBS membership drives. I volunteered for a few of those, mostly operating camera. At times, I would run the audio, which was actually more difficult than operating a studio camera. Dr B, the head of the Radio/TV Department, hosted one I worked at and made reference to me while we were on the air.
As you can see, I had a lot of chances to succeed in the Radio/TV department and land a better job when I graduated from college. I have to admit that I am mostly to blame for my shortcomings. During my senior year, I felt like I wasted three years in the Theatre Department when I should have spent that time building my credibility in broadcasting. (I'll be going into detail about the whole Theatre experience later.)
At the time, I felt like I was doing everything I could to be the best Radio/TV student around. I look back and I see that was not the case. But I will admit that there were a few obstacles that I was not certain I could overcome. These issues I will explore with tomorrow's post.
This is a really short post. I was hoping I had a lot more positive things to say.
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