“Camera 1, set on hosts, in 3, 2, 1” were common phrases in Franklin Hall this summer as students put on a new orientation show for incoming freshmen. KSU Live! is the first section that students go through before scheduling their classes and finishing their orientation process. 

Senior journalism major Ben Pagani took the role of executive producer for KSU Live! after being part of TV2 and Kent Core, after holding numerous positions at TV2 for most of his college career. While he has had plenty of experience with broadcasting, Pagani said this was a little more challenging. 

“The crew all has to have really good communication or else the wheels just fall off,” Pagani said. “The show is very structured and organized, but the hosts and Flashguides also change it up every day.” 

KSU Live! is completely student run with few facility advisors there to make sure everything goes smoothly. Gretchen Hoak, assistant professor in Media and Journalism and TV2 advisor, explained what the process has been like so far. 

“I was involved a lot more before the semester ended,” Hoak said. “I worked with the student success department in March, and my main thing was the creation process, making sure that I could help communicate and make their vision of the show possible.” 

Hoak also explained that her job was “easy after the first few rehearsals” and that the crew knew what they were doing which meant that “they had phenomenal students” and after the creation of KSU Live! they ran with it. 

KSU Live! ran almost everyday for the month of June and was a lot of work, but the crew still tried to have as much fun as possible. Rachel Gross, senior journalism major and TV2 associate director, said her favorite parts of the show include the people and memories. 

“Honestly I just liked to be around everyone, being in person and chatting and talking to the people behind the scenes and the Flashguides. It was a really nice time to talk to people and be together,” Gross said. “The memory of working on a live show every morning and having to wake up and go in, I never really done that before. It’s really preparing me for having a real job.” 

While DKS looked a little different from in the past, KSU Live! was absolutely a good substitute. Pagani said the program will appeal to everyone.

“The show appeals to everyone’s needs, and the students get to see that you can make connections even though it’s a show,” Pagani said. “We have a diverse cast, and there were steps taken to help people with hearing issues or concentration issues, since the show is very segmented.” 

Normalcy may be approaching soon and may change the course of orientations in the future, but Hoak said she thinks that KSU Live! might stick around.

“I don’t know if they’ll only do this again since they may have an in-person event, but they might have some version of it especially for students that can’t come to campus,” Hoak said. 

Pagani said KSU Live! received feedback but it will be dependent on future circumstances how to proceed with the orientation.  

“Feedback has been tremendous, but it will depend on the university and downtown because kids come to campus with DKS usually,” Pagani said. “As far as I know though no other schools are doing something like this, which is really cool.”

Taylor Gay is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].