After three semesters of no outlets to express my passion for broadcast, I decided to investigate the lack of student-driven television broadcasting opportunities at NIU.

That drew me to observe the only two channels hosted by NIU, Channel 8 and 20. It is common knowledge that Channel 8’s purpose is to provide students with premium and classic movies. Channel 20, on the other hand, serves as the channel for announcements on campus in between airings of the news broadcasts by Northern Television Center (NTC).

Considering it airs 3 times a day however, a large chunk of the student body probably misses each airing. “So why not air something else on that channel,” I thought. Better yet, why not turn Channel 20 into student-content driven channel? But of course, being the traditional idealist I am (all ideas but no idea on how to execute them) I realized it would take a much more experienced person in broadcasting to explain the situation to me. That person was the general manager of broadcast news at NTC, Allen May.

My first interaction with him was a very interesting one to say the least. Due to my misuse of terminology, I was lectured on the importance of research by Mr. May. Eventually he warmed up to me and took interest in the idea of a student access broadcast channel as well. The primary constraints he voiced to me however would be funding and censorship. Ideally, it would cost money to setup a team to manage a system like this. Additionally, who would have the right to say what can or cannot be aired, and why? His help and suggestions served as the foundation I needed in moving forward with this investigation.

The next thing I needed to do was go to the source itself and figure out why this channel is underutilized.

To be continued…