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I was AWOL last week, sorry about that. I was on my home from Cleveland where I was a panelist at a conference. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

So I’ve been working here at OTN for a little over fours years. We’ve grown from an initial staff of eight and limited programming to a staff of 18 and a schedule that provides student produced programming to the SU campus 24/7 during the academic year. That’s no small accomplishment. There aren’t many college TV stations that can make that claim. Perhaps, literally, a handful. And it’s not so much an attempt to pat myself on the back as much as it is to trumpet the desire and accomplishment of you, the students. To all who are producing television for OTN and Citrus TV, a big round of applause.

Here are some other programs that deserve a mention.

Citrus TV News – a nightly thirty-minute newscast Monday through Friday.
SUper Sports – Play by play of Syracuse University men’s ad women’s athletics
Woo Hoo Comedy, Zamboni Revolution and Penguins without Pants - everything comedy and everything Syracuse University students.
The Z Morning Zoo – your student campus radio station on OTN
The Mark Zito Show - the only regularly scheduled, live call-in show on a college TV station in the country
Cuse Coverage - a weekly update of campus events and student organizations
Connect – Syracuse University’s weekly magazine show.
Reel Old Movies – Old movies with a comedy twist
Indie Flick Files – award–winning independent films

And last week I learned that the show “On The Bench” from Citrus TV won “Best Overall Sports Show” at the Open Student Television Network Media Fest. Congratulations! There’s more but I’m running out of time. I guess here’s what I wanted to say.

If television was easy to produce well, everyone would be doing it. Is everything we do perfect and of high professional quality? Well, no. But isn’t that why you’re ALL here? Whether it’s the architecture or biology major or the engineering or political science major, you’re all here to learn, make mistakes, grow and test the limits of your abilities. That’s all we’re trying to do here too. We still have some work to do. The OTN website needs a little more attention and we need to do a better job of making the program schedule easier to find.

But I think the students at this university who strive to tell their stories on OTN and Citrus TV are exceptional. I’m proud to be associated with all of you and I appreciate your dedication and hard work. To the viewers, we’ll keep trying to do the best we can to lend a visual voice to your student experience here.

See you next week.