SU-TV is on-air

After two years of hard work and constant progression, Southern University’s broadcast station SU-TV is now up and running.
SU-TV is being managed by Alternative Production, a student based organization established to support the mission, goals and vision of SU-TV.
Alternative Productions is headed by Nekayla Reed, graduate broadcast student from Wichita, Kan. and Courtney Scott, graduate public relations student from New Orleans.
“SU-TV is an opportunity for mass communication students to ‘get their feet wet’ in the field of broadcast which will help them decide if broadcasting is the career that they really wish to pursue,” said Reed.
According to Reed, the production team is not only restricted to mass communications students.
“We need more student involvement to keep the program successful,” she said. “We are open to all resourceful students who have original ideas and will be committed to hard work and the production team.”
A television station is nothing new on college campuses, and according to Randy Powe and Darryl Robinson, it is an idea that both had for some time.
Powe, network manager of technology and network services, and creator of SU-TV, felt that there were many programs in circulation on other networks, but he still felt that there were other shows that students needed to see.
“I saw SU-TV as an opportunity to create a repository for positive black programming,” he said. “The shows that were offered daily on other networks were good, but I felt that there was an opportunity to give students a wider variety of black programs.”
Powe contacted Darryl Robinson, instructor/media engineer in the department of mass communications, to begin work on the program and outline the plan for SU-TV.
“We wanted to deliver positive programs, revitalize the broadcast studio, and assemble a production team to create originally produced programs,” said Powe.
Powe said Robinson is responsible for getting the show to the successful position that it’s at now.
“It was an idea of mine since I was a student,” Robinson said. “The job was just time consuming to start it before, so when Powe came to me I was delighted to begin work on the program.
“Everyone was supportive of the idea which made a clear pathway for the production of the station,” he said.
Currently, Alternative Productions has one original student show, “On the Yard” produced by Goldie Davenport, and they are currently working on other shows such as the “King of the Yard Rap Battle” to expand and improve the programming.
At the moment, SU-TV is a continually running closed circuit television station, meaning it’s only broadcasted on campus, but there are plans to expand the station in the future.
“Darryl Robinson and I are currently working on streaming the programs to the lab to make it available to off-campus students via the Internet,” Powe said. “This should be completed by summer school.”
Powe said after that goal is achieved, work will begin to get approval from the University so that the original programs the students produce can be aired on Cox Cable Network.
In the meantime Powe, Robinson and Alternative Productions are reaching out to enthused and dedicated students, graduate and undergraduate, to be apart of the team.
“Everybody claims they want a show, by no one wants to work,” Powe said.
SU-TV is available to on campus students 24 hours a day on channel 75.