Article by Olivia Simonson. Photo by Savannah Reinke.
The Broadcast Education Association (BEA) hosts its yearly conference in April, where they will present awards to university broadcasting programs across the nation. Submissions occur well before then, though, and awards are announced prior to the conference. This year, UTVS received two BEA Awards of Excellence – one for their work on TEDxStCloud, and Husky Productions won for their submission into the video sports live game production category.
Their production on TEDxStCloud, a community level of the famous TedTalks, also received an award of excellence. UTVS and TedxStCloud have worked together to produce and broadcast talks throughout the season, but this isn’t the first time they have collaborated together.
“For years now, UTVS has been invited on behalf of TEDxStCloud to live stream their events,” said junior Mya Fryckman, who is the Station Manager for UTVS. “It’s a super huge honor, and there’s no experience like it. And a few years ago, we figured out that this was super good content, so we submitted it and have had good luck with that.”
Husky Productions broadcasts every men’s home hockey game on Fox 9+ , and they submitted their broadcast of the Boston College vs. St. Cloud State hockey game. This broadcast occurred early on in their season, but they consider it to be one of their best.
“[We] looked back at all the games from last year and we looked at our game from this year and we thought ‘This Boston College game is pretty solid,’ so we submitted that one,” said sophomore Savannah Reinke, the producer for Husky Productions. “We had solid storylines, solid sequencing, solid rollouts, and compared to the rest of our stuff from last season, this was one of our best.”
The typical broadcasting season runs from October to March, but they can submit any broadcast from Jan. 2024 through Dec. 2024 to the festival for consideration.
“A lot of people submit their stuff on the back end of their season, so it’s the really good stuff,” said Reinke. “We ended up submitting something from November, so we submitted something from the beginning of our broadcasting season, when we were still working out things, and just like TEDx it received a national award, which was super exciting.
The Husky Productions crew had many of their staff graduate, so the team had an influx of freshman joining them this season. This also led to new positions for everyone on the team, and the group went through an adjustment period before they found their footing.
“We had so many new people this year,” said Reinke. “Both of our ice sides graduated, so we had new ice sides. No one was doing the same position they had done in previous years. This was the first year where everyone was thrown into something brand new, and they absolutely killed it.”
With their season coming to a close in March, Fryckman and Reinke have set lofty goals for both this season and next, hoping to keep their productions up to the standard they have set with these awards while improving as much as they can.
“Our goal is to always beat the previous broadcast, but we strive for perfection,” said Reinke. “And we know that isn’t always possible, but Mya and I are both perfectionists, so often we’ll rewatch games and think about what could have been better.”
Both Fryckman and Reinke expressed pride in their work, as most of the team works in the newsroom every day of the week. Working so closely together, the group has become almost a second family to them, and they couldn’t be more grateful.
“The newsroom has become almost my second home,” said Fryckman. “It’s where I go when I need anything, because I know that someone’s going to have my back, regardless of what I need. It’s so easy to get involved and be supported, and I don’t think I’d change it for the world.”
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