After four years, the Student Association Television Station is still struggling to gain the popularity they desire.
With small numbers of students tuning in on a regular basis, the SATV staff is trying to find new ways to improve their programming, while keeping the content as clean as possible.
Several of their shows have already hopped on the reality TV bandwagon as spin-offs of their more popular counterparts. Some students believe that the SATV programming is "boring" and often times "repetitive," and complaints about the commercials between segments are numerous.
SATV's director Marcus Taormina agrees that the viewership is low, but he says that the television station is still young.
"We are still trying to get established," Taormina said. "We try our best, but we don't do enough advertising."
According to Taormina, marketing is the station's weakest point. In an effort to spread the word, SATV has been putting advertisements in student publications, running promotional programs in the Student Union, spreading flyers around campus and making episodes available on iTunes. But most of their fanfare comes from word of mouth and students with nothing else to watch.
"I was bored one day and started flipping though channels," said Kristina Ferrick, a freshman undeclared major. "I saw a bunch of drunk girls on Main Street Confessions."
Main Street Confessions is a program started last fall that mimics the HBO Series Taxicab Confessions, where customers would get into a cab and usually tell the cab driver stories of sexual deviance. In SATV's version, students can watch their friends confess to a taxicab driver dressed as a clown.
Ferrick's opinion is that the show is funny, "but pointless." KC Lanigan, a junior English and legal studies major, agreed that the show is entertaining, but complained that there are rarely new episodes.
SATV's Main Street Confessions, as well as their show Dorm Raiders, have raised a few eyebrows from critics concerning the exploitation of intoxicated minors, but none to warrant cancellation due to content. Both have aired sexually explicit material, including an episode of Dorm Raiders where both the cameraman and the raider watch one of the victim's pornographic DVDs entitled "Black LA Hoes."
The Residence Halls and Apartments have since requested that Dorm Raiders be taken off the air for the safety of the students who were taped within their private dorm rooms. Reruns are still available through Podcasts but are no longer viewable on SATV.
"Main Street is actually our biggest post-production show," Taormina said. "We try to keep the content as clean as possible. However, we don't answer to a network so our programming isn't restricted to FCC and government regulation."
"Main Street" production includes over 20 hours of work by a crew consisting of nine staff members, nine interns, seven anchors and 19 volunteers. The turnaround rate for the average show from pre- to post-production averages about a week and consists of many late nights.
Many students believe that SATV has a lot of potential, but their shows are repeated often and scheduling is irregular enough to make it is difficult to watch on a consistent basis.
"I like to watch it," said Justin Dross, a junior business major. "Yet it is often the same shows over and over again."
The six-hour commercials and constant reruns can be traced to a shortage of crewmembers. As of right now, the small crew consists mainly of media studies and communications majors on a volunteer basis.
"We would like to get more people involved in the program," Taormina said. "We need English majors to write scripts, computer engineers to work on our equipment and anyone else that would be willing to lend a hand and give us an idea for a show.
Taormina also hopes to restructure the way SATV operates to improve efficiency. He has already started by reorganizing producer's notes and overhauling the entire approach they take to shooting.
"I am trying to change the way we do things by making the office more professional," Taormina said. "I have already began by documenting everything that goes on here in a journal so if someone had to walk in here, they could pick up a binder and be able to run with it."
For Ross Friedland, a junior business major and anchor on Sports Report, SATV is providing a stepping-stone for achieving his dream to be an anchor on a sports network like ESPN.
Ultimately, SATV needs more people to produce more shows.
"I hate to use this clich?(c), but get involved," Taormina said.
SATV can be found on Channel 46 or downloaded off of iTunes PodCast by searching for SATV.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
