AN AMAZING WEEKEND!
This past weekend a group of long-lost friends reunited in Macomb. What brought these folks together were their shared experiences in a student organization called UNICOM-Television while they were broadcasting students at Western Illinois University.
Linda Kuntz-Kotowski and
Toni Fitch had worked on this reunion for about a year.
Al Konieczka set up a UNICOM website and fellow UNICOM-ers posted pictures. The UNICOM sign was recreated and 3/4-inch video was burned to DVD. This group of 11 or 12 friends arrived on Friday evening and began to catch up on old times. And many of them had a lot of catching up to do given that most of the group graduated in 1984. And most of the alums had not been back to Macomb and Western Illinois University in over 20 years. Although many people think that Macomb never changes, it does and the alums enjoyed visiting old haunts and also finding that some of their favorite spots were no longer in business.
Read more on Broadcasting Chair Sharon Evan's blog.
Ebony Washington sends Greetings from Brookings, South Dakota!
I wanted to write you all and let you know how wonderful the road after Western has been for me. Last October, Mr. Norton took the NBS members to Des Moines, IA for our regional convention. There, I met with 2 individuals from a company named Daktronics. They manufacture large video boards, scoreboards for sports venues, and also create content and animations for those video boards. I scored an internship in the creative department known as Keyframe. Aside from animations, Keyframe does a lot of production of entrance videos for athletic teams, as well as photo shoots for player headshots, etc.
Keyframe also supplies game day producers for schools that lack production experience. This is what my internship is centered around. Everything I learned in Buzz's sports class is paying off GREATLY right now. I'm also using a lot of what I learned in Sharon's producing/directing course during the games. I am training on Daktronics' equipment, and a lot of other control room equipment. I am learning how to put on a good live show via our video boards. I spent 2 weeks in Omaha this past June working the video board at Rosenblatt Stadium during the NCAA College World Series. That was my first task with Daktronics. Working with ESPN on a nationally televised program was AMAZING! I have also worked in the control rooms for the Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Royals, and Southwest Minnesota State University. I will be working home games at South Dakota State University, a Missouri Valley Conference football team. WIU is going to be playing here in Brookings on September 13. President Goldfarb and Dr. Van Alstine will be here for the game. I will meet with them to discuss WIU possibly upgrading from standard Daktronics scoreboards to video boards. I am going to do an SEC Conference tour and work with the University of Georgia in Athens, Auburn University, and the University of Florida in Gainesville. These schools have Daktronics equipment and production crews. I will be shadowing the current game day producers there, and working on their crews. I am very excited about the opportunities to learn and travel that I have received through this internship.
This has been lengthy already, and I know you are all busy people. I just had to share my experiences with you as well as thank you whole-heartedly for all you have taught me during my time at Western. I hope I am not only doing the WIU Broadcasting department justice, but also making you all proud of me!
I will update you as much as I can, and send pictures from my various trips. Attached is the company newsletter that yours truly made the front cover of in July!
Well wishes, and thank you again,
Ebony Washington
