Tryouts begin today in Franklin Hall

With the start of a new semester comes new TV-2 programming.

Last semester there were two daily newscasts – one at 5:30 p.m. and one at 6:30 p.m. A board of student leaders decided to broadcast only one newscast an evening this semester at 5:30 p.m. and add new, more entertaining programs to their lineup.

TV-2 is the student-run TV station on campus. Students can watch the newscasts by tuning into channel 2 on campus and channel 16 off campus for Time Warner Cable users.

James Buechele, news director of TV-2 and senior broadcast journalism major, said their decision to go to one newscast was partly made to reduce burnout for directors and producers running the news programs. They also want to give the talent and crew more programs to work with and to keep it fun.

“Our main goal for doing this is that we want the station to be seen as a functioning television station,” said Kristen Traynor, executive producer of TV-2 and senior broadcast journalism major.

There are three different and new types of shows that will be in the lineup for TV-2 this semester. They include a dating show, “Date Em or Hate Em,” which originally premiered last spring and some documentaries from classes. SportsCorner, a weekly sports wrap-up, will continue to be broadcast at 9:00 p.m. Tuesdays.

Buechele said the staff is still open to new ideas and encouraged all those students who have ideas and are willing to get them off the ground,to stop by the TV-2 studios in Franklin Hall. He said to ask to speak to Jeff Johnson, the programming director.

TV-2 will also be adding a vodcast to KentNewsNet.com, the converged student media Web site. Traynor said the vodcast is a new feature they are just starting, and it will be a brief newscast students can view on the Web. It will be put up on Kent News Net at noon daily and will cover all the news that has taken place since the newscast from the night before. It will also let students know what will be coming up on TV-2 that evening.

Buechele reassured students interested in auditioning that the number of students selected to be crew or talent will stay the same as previous semesters, or even increase, depending on the number of programs they will be running.

Some of the students who have worked on TV-2 before are eager for the new changes. Katy Robinson, freshman electronic media production major, said the changes would provide a good balance of both news and entertainment.

“I think it will provide more variety for the viewers and draw a larger audience,” she said.

Contact news correspondent Rebecca Micco at [email protected].