WHO WE ARE

MISSION

The Mission of the Mississippi State Television Center is to promote and support Mississippi State University through the production of radio, TV and other electronic media; provide electronic media, education, instruction and information services to the university, the state and the nation through electronic communications technology; to lead in the development and exploration of new media.

 

HISTORY

By Erika Celeste

In fall 1986, Mississippi State began a new venture unlike anything it had ever attempted before. headquartered in the Wise Center, the new undertaking brought together aspects of university relations, agriculture, athletics, and the veterinary school.

The project, which would come to be known as MS TV, was a centralized TV center devoted to the promotion of the People's University and all its colleges. Four members of the original crew continue to work as pillars of the TV Center today. This is their story.

 

In 1986, Ralph Olivieri worked for Mississippi State's Office of University Relations. Though he had the opportunity to leave MSU, the decision to create a campus TV Center convinced him to stay.

"It was pretty exciting to actually be here in a facility that had all the bells and whistles at the time," remembers Olivieri. He would eventually become the center's operations manager.

Over at the vet school, Bennie Ashford, the soon to be sports coordinator, and Scott Lewis, the engineer who would someday maintain the satellite truck, also were drafted to work in the new center.
"I thought it was exciting that the university would put all of it's resources into one place. And hopefully the whole university would have access to better equipment and better trained, more skilled personnel," says Lewis.

"I'm sort of a frustrated athlete," adds Ashford. "I knew early that I would to be able to play college ball, but I wanted to stick around it somehow. This gave me an opportunity with my professional skills to be involved in athletics."

The final remaining member of the team, Andy Sims, came from the extension center. He was tasked with bringing all the equipment over from the extension center and setting it up in its new home.

Despite the daunting workload, Sims remembers, "It was a very positive experience. It had a lot of promise, so there was a lot of activity and a lot of excitement."

 

In those early days, the team was led by interim director Hank Flick. The five already knew each other from coaches' shows, which became some of the center's first programming. Other projects included special purpose video packages and presentations for various university departments.

The following year, David Hutto, a veteran member of the Cooperative Extension Service and member of the TV Center team, became its permanent director.

In 1988, the TV Center became an official university unit. But the offerings on the fledgling university channel were slim.

"At one point, we just had a 90-minute tape, full of whatever we could find MSU-related and that tape ran 24/7," says Olivieri. "Of course, today it's all computer-run; we have a server that we put all our programs in and it puts in all our breaks, so we've come a long way."

A year later, the TV Center got a huge boost when it received its very own satellite truck - something still unheard of for many smaller commercial TV stations at the time.

"I remember Bennie, David and me walking into the parking lot and there she was," recalls Olivieri. "First time we had seen her completed. We'd seen photographs, but there's nothing like when you see the real mcCoy and say, 'Wow, that's ours.'"

Over the years, the truck has traveled across the country, from California to Florida and everywhere in between. It's worked for every major news outlet, been used for White House pool video, and covered Hurricane Katrina. It was even in Pasadena when the Mars surveyor landed, enabling the MSU crew to see the very first pictures from Mars as the scientists were seeing them for the first time.

"The satellite truck is a great tool for the university. It's a billboard that travels and attracts people everywhere it goes," says Lewis. "I have a lot of kids who see it and come up to me and ask me about it. I encourage them to come to Mississippi State and study math and science."

In addition, the satellite truck has covered debates and been used for remote broadcasts with the center's agricultural staple, Farmweek.

"I would pit any of our production crew against anybody else in the country with regard to doing a remote production or production house work or any of those types of things," says Olivieri.

In 1990, the TV Center got another boost when it's broadcasting capabilities expanded from campus to the local cable channel. It soon became known as MS TV 30. With it came a whole new line-up of programming. Later, the channel would be switched to 18 on the dial, but the center would keep its cable access.

In 1995, Mike Goodwin came to work at MS TV as chief engineer and later as its director.

"When I got here, I saw this was really different," remembers Godwin. "I saw this was a real broadcast facility. It was charged with promoting the university, it was partnering with the communication department, and there was athletic involvement with all the games. I thought, 'Wow, this looks like a really neat place to work.'"

But even more impressive to Godwin were the students. He'd worked with several MSU graduates in Jackson and they always seemed to rise to the top. At the time, about 50 students were going through the program. Today, 200 students go through the program every year. They filter in from the communication department as well as meteorology and sports communication.

The hands-on experience the students receive working on such shows as Take 30, This Week @ MSU, Stateline, State Update, MSU Tonight, and The Bark - just to name a few - have led to jobs with CMT, CNN, the Weather Channel, and regional TV stations.

"The best part of the job is the opportunity to work with some outstanding students," says Andy Sims, "The opportunity to work with some outstanding staff and the opportunities it gives us to learn from each other."

In addition to providing the experience for prominent jobs in the broadcasting industry, the TV Center has gained recognition throught numerous awards, from Addy;s to Mississippi Association of Broadcasters awards to Council for the Advancement and Support of Education awards. In addition, several individual staff members and students have won Emmys for their work.

"That's one of my goals for the TV Center, to win an Emmy," says Olivieri as he points to his production schedule board. "I've got a picture of an Emmy on there to remind everyone."

Godwin says one of the things that has led to the success of the TV Center has been the staff's ability to adapt to the changing world of multimedia.

"It's not the family gathering around the TV at 7 p.m. to watch Bonanza anymore. You've got Web delivery, you've got tivo, you've got podcasts. News comes largely off the Web now. So we can't stay inside the walls of this building and expect to be fully engaged in the changes of the world. We're constantly out there learning, too."

Godwin explains that one of the things that enables the TV Center to be out in the world on a regular basis goes back to the way it was set up.

"The way we operate here is we're 50 percent funded by the state and we self-generate 50 percent of our funding. So that means we have to go out in the industry and we have to partner with people to work as a production house to bring some outside funding in to support our activities."

One of the times the TV Center staff is most visible to the MSU community is on game days, when they operate the cameras for the Jumbotron and coach's show."

Game day is showtime," says Godwin. "It's a richer experience because we're showing music clips and plabacks after each play. So it's multimedia now."

Upgrading the Jumbotron to a larger, more enhanced system tops the agenda for sports coordinator Bennie Ashford.

"Though we don't have that many events at the football stadium, the systems that we operate there are the biggest and have the biggest impact. When you have 55-60,000 people viewing everything that you do, that's impact. So, from a systems standpoint, that's our biggest challenge right now."

Over the years, the TV Center's staff has expanded to include Belinda Betts (accounting assistant), Steve Carver (associate producer), Lewis Halbert (video producer and manager), Barry Hughes (engineer), Sara McTaggart (graphics producer), and Marc Rolph(video producer and director).

"We have a really good, talented group of people," says Olivieri. "We fight like brothers and sisters sometimes, but when we're up against the wall and the pressure's on, we get it done and we work together well." And, he adds, "There's a nice feeling of satisfaction in getting the job done and getting MSU'S name out there. I'm really proud of our crew."

In the last 20 years, technology has advanced tremendously with the use of cell phones, the Internet and iPods. Through it all, the TV Center and its staff have remained strong, dependable and dedicated to the mission of MSU.

"We are leaders in our field and professionals at what we do." says Ashford. "We really care deeply about the university and that's why we're all still here."