Students may revive campus TV
A group of about 30 students met Tuesday evening in 101 Collis to discuss the revival of DTV, a closed circuit campus television network.
"This meeting was just to get everyone in one place who's interested," Bill Finnegan '00 said.
Finnegan said he organized the meeting to get a group of interested people together and to start the process of becoming an organization.
A group of students originally started DTV! in 1991. Initially very successful, the station was discontinued after a year due to a lack of audience and management problems, he said.
Because the station aired on cable television, it could only be seen in a few lounges on campus, he explained. With the new interim cable package available this Winter term, the station would be available in every room.
"Now any student can watch a DTV student run TV station in their dorm," Finnegan said.
The new cable package will include a campus bulletin board system, a scrolling list of campus and community events, he said. The new student group plans to take over the upkeep of this system, and eventually, student produced programming could be aired in place of the bulletin board, he said.
Having the bulletin board allows for freedom in producing programming because the station can air as little or as much programming as they like, Finnegan said.
At the meeting, the group broke into four committees that will address different parts of starting up a television station. A constitution committee will look at the constitution written by the 1991 group and decide how to revise or rewrite it. The committee will also consider whether the group should become a student organization though the Committee on Student Organizations or if they should become an independent organization.
A Campus Bulletin Board committee will be responsible for taking over operation of the bulletin board system beginning winter term, Finnegan said. An alumni support committee plans to contact alumni who are involved in television and broadcasting to get advice and resources, he said. The program development committee will discuss what programs the group can produce and what they would need to produce them.
Finnegan said they hope to clarify its constitution and move towards becoming an official student organization by the beginning of Winter term.
