NUTV opens its doors

By Sara Hanson

After a decade long process, NUTV finally has a place to call home.

On Fri., Sept. 15, the university’s campus television station celebrated their brand new location on the third floor of MacEwan Student Centre as well as their 15th anniversary by opening their new doors to the public.

“This open house is just the start of the impact of positive changes,” said NUTV executive director Michelle Wong, who noted the station is one of Canada’s oldest and largest campus-based television stations. She believes the new location will help unite NUTV’s staff with its members.

“Before it was like we lived in an apartment, but now we have a home,” she said. “It’s not temporary anymore.”

For the past 15 years, the station’s offices were located on the main floor of MSC and were separated from their production rooms. While construction didn’t begin until last fall, Wong found letters discussing a new space dating back to 1995.

NUTV producer and program director Tinu Sinha believes the new location will have a large impact on the station’s efficiency.

“The old offices made production a longer process,” he said. “Members also have a place they can socialize now.”

Both Wong and Sinha hope NUTV’S new location will increase its visibility within the campus community and attract new members who are vital to the station’s existence.

“We want to build community programming generated by the membership,” said Wong. “Creating television is a combination of creativity and technicality. The staff may be the infrastructure, but it’s the students’ ideas.”

Wong noted that 20-25 per cent of members go on to careers in the television and film industry. Sinha happens to be part of that statistic.

“NUTV opened up possibilities for me,” he said. “It got my foot in the door for a federal government internship that placed me in a production company.”

Step by step Sinha was able to move up in the world of television without any formal training until he returned to NUTV where he produces Full Frontal, the station’s weekly primetime magazine show.

Closed circuit television field director Bryson Montgomery originally joined NUTV because he thought it was cool that a friend of his was making television. He has now been a member for three years and hopes to break into the industry.

“NUTV has taught me how to share ideas,” said Montgomery. “I’ve learned how to collaborate and make a final product.”

Wong insists working with NUTV is as close to real TV as students can get. Within a month, members have the training they need to participate behind or in front of the camera.

“We give a voice to those who usually don’t have one in mainstream media,” said Wong.