The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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January 19, 2008

Bethany’s hockey broadcasters branching north

New contract enhances communications program

By Robb Murray

If you tuned into the Minnesota State University men’s hockey games last weekend, you may have noticed some familiar faces in a not-so-familiar environment.

The students in Bethany Lutheran College’s communications program, the ones who televise the Maverick home games, were put to work about four hours north of their usual home, the Alltel Center in Mankato.

They were in Duluth to televise the weekend hockey series between the Mavericks and the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.

Duluth television station WDIO had been televising the games for years but chose not to renew its contract with Charter Communications and UMD. And when Bethany was working out its own contract with Charter, the topic of the Duluth contract came up.

Chris Johnson, director of Bethany’s communications program, said he offered to have his team of students work the UMD games. Johnson put together a modest proposal for six games. Charter accepted and the deal was done.

To get it done right, however, they needed a mobile studio. The college purchased a trailer and Johnson and Co. equipped it with cameras, graphics and audio equipment.

“We used to work out of a little room at the civic center,” Johnson said. “Now we work out of the trailer.”

What it means for Bethany is more exposure for the communications program and the work the students do. And more learning opportunities for the students.

“The new environment adds some problem solving, but even more important is the professional interaction with the UMD coaching staff and the arena staff,” Johnson said. “The students have to gain knowledge about the UMD team as opposed to just the MSU team. They have to be professional with all kinds of people, not just (MSU coach) Troy Jutting.”

Having the mobile trailer may even result in additional work for Bethany’s communications students. Johnson said Charter has inquired about contracting with his team on a sports-related show in the Twin Cities.

The more the students’ experience resembles the real-world jobs they aspire to, the better prepared they’ll be for those jobs.

And given the number of communications program graduates working in the field, it appears the Bethany name is getting noticed.

Recent graduate Greg Vandermause now works on an ESPN production crew. A current student has just nabbed an internship with Fox Sports Net.

And a manager at MediaCom in Des Moines, after hiring three Bethany graduates, called back to ask Johnson if he had any more.

Marcus Taplin, an 18-year-old freshman from Fairmont, said he passed up the opportunity to play college-level athletics to get in on the communications program at Bethany.

He said traveling to Duluth last weekend to work on the hockey broadcast brought new elements to an already comprehensive program.

“It was a great deal because it’s a different environment, there’s different challenges,” Taplin said. “We had to pull all our cable there, which helped us to learn that technical aspect.”

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