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April 6, 2004
Reality TV… GW Style
Grassroots Student Organization Provides the Impetus,
with SMPA Assistance, to Launch GW-TV
By Eric
Solomon
There have been many attempts to launch a campus television station in
the past but most of those dreams never advanced beyond idle fantasies.
This didn’t stop an enterprising sophomore from Cleveland, OH. With
his high school background in broadcast journalism, Brian Weiss found
he had the right tools — a talented pool of eager students and support
from the School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) — to build an
active student television station at The George Washington University.
Several attempts to bring a TV station to campus have fizzled out and
faded from memory. The last came when GW installed a closed-circuit cable
system on campus. The communications department’s cable Channel 6
was the home of WRGW radio, airing music over a color test pattern. Not
necessarily Emmy-award winning broadcasting, but up to that point it was
the University’s most successful foray into the medium. In 1986,
the Program Board helped re-establish WRGW (540AM) with new equipment
and a new space and the school continued airing music under a new name,
WRTV (680AM). When the new radio studios on the ground floor of the Marvin
Center opened in 1999, WRTV reunited with WRGW and the merger established
a stronger, more vibrant station. Soon after the University obtained a
closed-circuit cable system, Channel 22 was allocated to WRTV, which remains
part of WRGW today.
“WRTV was a vital part of the University,” National Public Radio
newscaster and former WRTV advisor Corey Flintoff said. “If you want
a vibrant campus you definitely need a strong TV or radio station.”
Last fall Weiss and a handful of his friends took baby steps to launch
GW-TV.com, an online television experiment that attracted a lot of attention.
Today, with help and support from SMPA, the little station that could
has transformed into GW-TV, Channel 6 on the University’s closed
circuit cable system. With a little magic from 350 enthusiastic students,
leadership, and determination from Weiss, and guidance from SMPA through
graduate teaching assistant Rob Wood and the communications office, GW-TV
turned the dial from fantasy to reality TV.
To pursue his news anchor ambitions, Weiss felt it was important to pick
a college in the Washington, DC, area. He hoped that the SMPA would give
him the opportunity to write articles and make video productions.
During his freshman year at GW, Weiss recognized that SMPA had the technology
in place for a student TV station, but lacked organized student support.
After a stint writing for The Hatchet, and deciding that print
journalism was not the track he wanted to take, Weiss hit on the idea
of launching an Internet-based television station from his computer in
his apartment.
Without the means to create their own cable station, GW-TV.com had to
start out small to prove that a student-run station could become a valuable
service to the GW community and SMPA. The venture quickly received a wealth
of interest and support.
The School of Media and Public Affairs’ Channel 6 has always played
a role in providing students with hands-on experience. In the past, students
aired “The Source,” a news magazine show created by students
in CBS Producer Roxanne Russell’s “Television Workshop”
course. Weiss convinced the school to not only air “The Source,”
but to grant GW-TV access to the school’s equipment enabling them
to create and air more student productions.
“So many students are producing high quality projects,” Wood
said. “Having ‘The Source’ as a flagship show, already
produced by SMPA students and taught by Russell, Weiss’ proposal
became an easy sell to the administration.”
“As time has gone by I think the support SMPA has given us is remarkable
and a blessing,” Weiss added. “As each week goes by, we can
tell that they are more comfortable with us and that we are adding a service
to the community, and making a good name for the School of Media and Public
Affairs.”
Besides Weiss and Wood, six students — Mike Rogers, Billy Sage, Stephanie
Christancho, Eric Correira, Ashley Drake and Adam Linet — create,
produce and market most of the material on GW-TV. Their goal is to create
an outlet for creativity to as many students as possible. If students
would like to air a project they created in class, they can access a submission
form on the GW-TV.com Web site. According to Weiss, even if students haven’t
already produced their own shows but they have an idea or they just want
to get involved, they can complete an online survey and indicate their
desire to help out with future productions and marketing.
SMPA supplied GW-TV with use of the cable channel, production and editing
equipment, as well as a dedicated workspace and studio. GW-TV also received
resources to help redesign their Web site and integrate it with the SMPA
Web site, which will help market it to prospective students. The school
also provides guidance and support from its communications office and
the services of Wood as their GTA.
Interim SMPA Director Albert L. May stressed that students taking classes
will have priority over the equipment. In order for students to use any
of SMPA’s equipment, they must take an introductory course to sight
and sound, and pass an engineers test.
“In a way this is an experiment and we’ll see how this goes
and how it runs,” May said. “With the latest recommendations
from the SMPA Task Force Committee (See
SMPA Task Force article), I think we’re going to see an enhanced
effort in doing more with GW-TV and more programming coming out of courses
that will go on that channel.”
Currently, GW-TV airs two hours of material that is repeated 24 hours
a day. The big question is whether GW-TV can survive after Wood and Weiss
leave the University. In the past, student groups have expressed interest,
but that has faded in the summers or when they graduate.
Looking a few years down the road, Weiss has only positive thoughts. “By
the time I graduate, I would like to see us airing live broadcasting either
nightly or weekly and give students that experience.”
May echoed Weiss’ vision. “Setting up a student television station
is quite an undertaking. Radio and newspapers are low budget compared
to this. If I had a wish, I would also want to produce a daily student
television show. That is something we are headed toward.”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
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Related Links
SMPA
Sets Plan for the Future
GW-TV.com
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