After almost two decades of struggling to establish a consistent role on campus, members of Dartmouth Television, the student-run campus television channel, have reason to believe their hopes will soon be realized. Tonight, DTV will film the semifinals of "Dartmouth Idol," the "American Idol" -style competition founded in 2008 by Dartmouth College Gospel Choir director Walt Cunningham and director of Hopkins Center ensembles Joshua Kol.
According to DTV president David Becker '13, Kol told him last Tuesday about the opportunity to film the semifinal performance.
"We were told we were going to be filming it and we were freaking out," Becker said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
According to Becker, the organization was initially concerned with how to put the plan into action.
"We were very excited to have the opportunity to do it, but it seemed like it was going to be really complicated, and we went straight to [the Committee on Student Organizations] to figure out how we could technologically pull this off," he said
With the proposed project in mind, DTV presented a revised technical budget to COSO last Wednesday. COSO approved DTV's budget, and the ordered equipment is expected to arrive on campus today in time for the "Dartmouth Idol" semifinals, scheduled for 7 p.m.
According to Becker, DTV's new equipment will positively impact the entire campus.
"We operate the only Dartmouth-owned studio equipment ever," Becker said. "That's great because that means that anyone under the umbrella of Dartmouth that wants an event filmed or something filmed can have it done without rental fees, without student labor fees, and it will be with studio-level equipment. That's one thing we're offering. It's very exciting."
Becker went on to note that by investing in DTV's budget, COSO will save money every time a club or campus organization wants to record an event. Some clubs that might not consider filming certain events now have the ability to do so. As of Monday, after a meeting Becker had with Student Body President Frances Vernon '10, DTV will be filming Student Assembly meetings.
"We're a new form of publicity for [clubs], for events, for meetings, for [DTV] itself," Becker said. "There are so many different things that they can do with DTV that we want them to do and so we're hoping that that becomes a popular option."
In addition to providing the impetus for DTV to obtain new equipment, "Dartmouth Idol" has jump-started the creation of DTV's own content over the weekend and on Monday, members of DTV interviewed "Dartmouth Idol" contestants. According to semifinalist Andrew Purpura '11, the interviewers were enthusiastic about their work and they were having fun at the same time.
"They're doing a mock American Idol' interview, so a lot of the questions were very similar," semifinalist Tommy Shanahan '10 said. "They asked me what I was singing, they asked me whether I'm nervous, my musical background, what else I do on campus. It was cool, it was very cool. I've never been a part of anything like that before."
DTV also had contestants record promotional spots for the channel during the interview sessions, according to semifinalists Andrew Rayner '10 and Addie Gorlin '11. Rayner said that he thinks the use of "Dartmouth Idol" to revive the station is logical.
"I think it's cool that they're using something already based on popular media to revamp DTV," Rayner said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
DTV is also benefitting from the networking involved with working on "Dartmouth Idol." The interview sessions with all 16 semifinalists yielded new relationships that could help DTV expand its programming and its membership in the future, Becker said.
"We've always wanted to have relationships with students who are interested in performing, and this has been a really great chance," Becker said.
"Dartmouth Idol" is only the first of a series of programs DTV plans on filming this year. Apart from a lineup of original shows that DTV plans to broadcast next month, the TEDx conference recently approved by Student Assembly and scheduled to take place at Dartmouth in April will be a milestone for DTV, according to Becker.
"We're going to be involved in how that gets out to campus from a film perspective," Becker said. "So that's our next big thing. We love all these things like Dartmouth Idol, we love all these events, but we're also getting our shows out there."
Original shows planned for broadcasting range from reality shows to comedy news programming. The lineup for DTV's premiere broadcast next month includes a reality show about the "D-Team," a scripted program about a naive freshman called "Shmobonomics" and "The Mojo Show," a talk show led by Maurice "Mojo" Johnson '13.
"We're really looking forward to campus really realizing that this is free and that if you have the idea, it can happen," he said.
The "Dartmouth Idol" semifinals will air on DTV at a later, undisclosed date, according to Becker. Kol and Cunningham could not be reached for comment by press time.
