SBUTV News- Hard Work and Fun

Make your way to the basement of the Student Union on Stony Brook University’s campus. At the bottom of the stairwell you will see a beauty salon, hidden away from the student population. Beauty in the Brains, it’s called. But that’s not our destination. The loud music and crazy hairdos is only a temporary distraction. Our destination is a little further. Hidden a little deeper inside the walls of the Union. Make two rights past the beauty salon and head down the corridor coated in a yellow haze. Go past some classrooms and the headquarters for the school paper, The Statesman. It is here where you will come across three doors. Three doors that lead to rooms filled with commitment, passion, long hours, and an overall enjoyment. Here is where the cast and crew of SBUTV News create their weekly news report that is aired on the closed circuit television station across campus. Found on channel 20, this half an hour report airs three times a day. Three-thirty, seven-thirty and twelve midnight are the times they’ve been allotted. Maybe not prime time slots and probably hurting the ratings, but as you will find out, that is not what the students who make up SBUTV News are concerned with.

The week starts whenever he wants it to. Senior Shu Chao Luo has the distinct honor of being the executive producer for SBUTV News. He is a glorified babysitter, making sure everyone does what he or she is supposed to and keeping the sometimes-unruly college students in-line.

“I organize everything together. I set up the meetings, set up what segment goes where, make sure everything is on time. I basically cover everything from top to bottom,” Chao, as those on the set know him, explained.

“SBUTV News is a very time consuming job for me. I’d have to say it’s like a five day job,” Chao said with an overwhelmed smile. It’s the time and commitment that Chao puts in that makes it an easy place to work.

“It’s really fun. I have been a co-anchor for the past two semesters,” junior Liz Cooper said. “I took over for the last anchor. She had to leave because she got the lead in Grapes of Wrath. But it’s fun being the co-anchor. It was a little scary at first, but after a while it became fun to sit up there with Dave [Dupoula] and fool around.”

“It comes easy you know,” junior David Dupoula said, failing to restrain the laughter that came with the comments. “It’s just second nature,” he said of his phenomenal anchoring.
It is these two personalities that come together and make the sometimes-slow moving show worth watching. The playful banter they share between segments and at the conclusion of the show is a microcosm of the laid back atmosphere that is SBUTV News.

My job is sufficiently difficult,” junior TC McCarthy said. “It occupies five days out of my week and most of those five days I’m feeling stressed out. But I love it. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t.” TC takes care of the technical side of the report. He puts in the hours behind the scenes, when no on else is watching. It’s the little things he takes care of that people don’t usually notice that make SBUTV News run smoothly.

Preparation is difficult as it is with any news program. There is a lot of reporting and writing. The close knit family that is the cast of SBUTV News makes the journalism side of the show a little easier.

“Yeah, I really rely on the other students a lot when I write my scripts, as far as the reporting goes,” Dave admits. Dave is a history major at Stony Brook University and lacks the education in journalism reporting that the other- journalism major- crewmembers have.

“Being a journalism major doesn’t matter to me,” Chao said when explaining the requirements for being a member of SBUTV News—or lack there of. “We would take anyone. We want people to come down and help us out. It is great experience. I think, since I’ve been here, that everyone has enjoyed themselves. It is fun.”

Chao has been the executive producer for the past three years. The experience and knowledge he has gained is priceless and will help him in future endeavors when looking for a job.

“I don’t know exactly what I want to do after this is all done. I will miss SBUTV and everyone here,” Chao said solemnly. “It has been great being with all the students through the years.”

“I definitely want to go into broadcast,” TC said. “I’m looking to stay on the technical side of things. Field operations or something, but I love this and hope it works out as a career.”

Liz Cooper hopes to continue her career in broadcast and ultimately end up somewhere in the celebrity-news side of town. As for Dave he still remains aboard the ship amongst the waves—no destination in site, for now.

“I have no plans yet. What do you do with a history degree? I don’t know if I even want to stay with history, but I’m so far into now that it doesn’t make any sense to change,” Dave said candidly. “It would be cool to keep doing this. I have a lot of fun. I don’t know. I’m not looking that far ahead.”

As the summer approaches the three pale-green doors housing SBUTV News slowly close. They will remain that way until fall semester comes. The hallway will remain empty, only the yellow haze of the fluorescent lights there to keep it warm, until Chao returns with his family to embark upon another season of hard work, long hours and an overall good time.