Northwestern broadcast students awarded in three events at OBEA Competition

Six students at Northwestern Oklahoma State University won awards at the Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association's recent contest.

This statewide competition took submissions from all colleges in Oklahoma. NWTV7 placed in three different events.

Cade Kennedy, sophomore mass communication major from Alva, and Jara Reeder, junior mass communication major from Elk City, teamed up to cover a Northwestern soccer game for their Sports Reporting course under Dr. Luis Rocha-Antunes, assistant professor of mass communication. They placed first in Video Sports Play-by-Play. Reeder did the recording while Kennedy did the commentating.

"I couldn't have done it without the group of people helping run the broadcast," Kennedy said. "I'm proud that we won the awards that we did."

Kennedy also worked with Caleb Powers, sophomore mass communication major from Perryton, Texas, to cover a live e-sports competition. The pair used the KNSU Radio station room in Jesse Dunn to stream their show. This placed second in the Video Sports Play-by-Play.

The KNSU Radio station room has three studio production rooms, each with TV monitors with Apple Mac computers. In the main studio room, there is a soundboard to control the microphone volumes and different soundbites, a video switcher to control the cameras that stream the shows, three condenser microphones for streaming and recording multiple hosts and guests, as well as light boxes and detail lights. In the other two studio rooms, there is a TV monitor with Apple Mac computers and a microphone to be able to record podcasts.

Placing third for Best Newscast are Dax Benway, junior health and sports science education major from Derby, Kansas; Connor Gray, senior mass communication major from Alva; and Benjamin Kliewer, senior mass communication major from Mt. View. The students created the newscast for their Broadcast Practicum class under Antunes.

Each week throughout the semester, the Broadcast Practicum class creates a newscast in the Control Room in Jesse Dunn. Each student gathers footage and interviews from people about events happening on campus and makes them into a video package to present on the newscast. They have a designated anchor, teleprompter, video producer, control board director, soundboard producer, and a script manager.

"The students were very professional, and they created high-quality content," Antunes said. "Their content was well edited, well shot, and they did great with their voice in front of the camera. I'm very proud of them, especially with it being some of their first times getting experience like this."

For more information about the broadcast aspect of mass communication, contact Antunes at lrochaantunes@nwosu.edu or call 580-327-8465. For more information on the communication department, contact Tamara Brown, chair and assistant professor of speech, at tlbrown@nwosu.edu or call 580-327-8429.