WVTV (Villanova)

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WVTV
station_
station_branding = "Villanova Television"
analog = 17 (Villanova Cable Network)
founded = 1999
affiliations =
owner = Villanova University
location = Villanova, Pennsylvania
homepage = [http://www3.villanova.edu/wvtv/ www3.villanova.edu/wvtv/]

Villanova Television (VTV) is a student-run campus television station within Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania. The channel is only available through the on campus cable network.

VTV provides coverage of campus events, news, political debates and discussion, short films, and original drama to students and faculty. The station also creates a new orientation video each year, which has become a focal point of annual freshman orientation.

History

In the fall semester of 1999, a group of students met in the commuter lounge of the Connelly Center for the regular meeting of the Villanova TV Production Club, which had officially been in existence for about a year. The club had a small office which housed its mediocre equipment. Programming could be viewed on the closed-circuit university cable system, but there was no means for programming to be played through the transmitter.

New equipment was purchased and the group reorganized to give members more creative freedom. An executive board was elected, and the club's name was officially changed to VTV. In 2000, the name of the station changed to WVTV, although the original logo with VTV remained. That fall, the official name of the station was changed to WVTV.

WVTV expanded in 2002 into a larger studio/editing space. A political debate show,"The Villa-No Spin Zone", was introduced and became a staple of WVTV programming. In 2003, the station acquired a new digital editing system and produced its first DVD, an orientation video for freshmen. Other projects were created to take advantage of the modern technology. During the 2004-2005 school year, the station moved twice before taking up its current studio.

2006 brought equipment failures, including old broadcast hardware, which crippled WVTV's ability to generate good programming. The breakdown led to a drop in student participation, and only the most committed members remained by the end of the academic year. Those students became the nucleus of the current executive board, who are working to restore the station to its place as a campus mainstay. New broadcast equipment was installed in September 2007, and in November 2007 the group purchased a new Mac Pro editing suite, complete with Final Cut Studio 2.

A campaign began in 2008 to revive WVTV, and within two weeks of beginning this campaign, membership increased to over twenty people. With a new Executive Board in place, VTV restructured many of the elements of station, creating a more stable and productive organization. Currently, VTV is expanding its programming with a variety of new shows in many genres, including cooking, news talk and opinion, and sci-fi, along with a series of short films.

Current Executive Board

*"General Manager" - Andrew Simone
*"News Director" - Zander Goss
*"Programming Director" - Mike Goode
*"Public Relations Director" - Mark Ballweg
*"Sports Director" - Evan Hollenshade
*"Technical Director" - Ryan Mahoney
*"Training Director" - Nathan Villamor
*"Underwriting Director" - Sarah Clarke

Programming History

Older programming

*"The Weekly Wildcat" – an early predecessor to "Nova News", featured news and entertainment across a wide spectrum of campus activities and events
*"Villanova Basketball Highlights"
*"Sheehan Beach" – high-drama monthly series starring students
*"Dorm Detectives" – dating show similar to MTV's "Room Raiders"; students decide who they would like to go on a date with, purely based on the person's dorm room
*"Game Time!" – sports talk show with recaps of professional and college sporting events of the week, interviews with Villanova athletes and coaches
*"The Hunt for Hanson" – reporters seek out Hanson for an interview
*"Special Olympics Special" – interviews with Special Olympics athletes taped during the event on campus

Current programming

*"BABEL" – an action/suspense drama that tells the story of seven Villanova students, Chosen to save the world from the oncoming apocalypse. The show has more episodes than any other show in the history of VTV (seven one-hour episodes), and is the most-popular and most-watched program in the station's history.
*"The Dark World" - A show dedicated to investigating the supernatural both on and off of Villanova's campus.
*"Nova Sportscast" - Brings the Villanova campus the latest in sports news and game analysis.
*"Nova News" – campus events, clubs, sports and people, interesting off-campus places, and local features
*"HLT Productions" – A group dedicated to creating original shorts including "The Three","Face Value",and "The Interview".
* Campus events, lectures, concerts – taped for rebroadcast to the campus

ee also

* [http://www3.villanova.edu/wvtv/ VTV Official Site]