The 30th annual Black College Radio (BCR) and Television Conference was held in Atlanta. The organization was created by Lorenzo (Lo) Jelks. Over the years this organization has given many African American students the opportunity to showcase their talents and be awarded for them.
In the program given to us during the awards dinner Jelks stated that, “Now in its 30th year, BCR offers students throughout the country an opportunity to interface with broadcast professionals on an annual basis to help guide them in their pursuit of careers in electronic journalism.”
Throughout the conference his statement had been proven true. GSU mass communication students were not only able to go and represent the school but were also able to interact with many different students from other schools such as: Chicago State University-WCSU, Wiley College-KBWC, Mississippi Valley State-WVSD, Delaware State-WDSU, and Fort Valley State- WVFS.
At the first luncheon of the conference. The stage was open to all students and faculty in the room to share their knowledge, questions, and concerns. The main topic the crowd was asked to speak on was, “Where do we think radio and television are heading?”
One of the faculty members got up and spoke on the fact that the internet is becoming a big part of our life. As Black college radio stations, we need to network more and broadcast each others shows from time to time. While many of the students on other campuses, as well as ours, discussed their problems with campus involvement in community service and listening to the station, other students were able to share ideas about what things our stations can do to capture that attention.
Another advisor that stood and spoke was Joyce Evans, KGRM’s general manager. Her voice was very prominent when she spoke on the need for students on campus to expand their minds so as to not only think about now, this time and day, and mainly what’s happening on campus, but think about what you can do to make an impact in the future and possibly around the world. As she stepped down from the stage the room filled with hand claps.
The last day of the conference, there was a music symposium that included a couple of CEO’s and up and coming artists. They mainly touched on how much you still have to work even when you think you have made it in the industry.
When you get into entertainment you really have to be ready and willing to work. You also have to have something to offer that’s different from everyone else trying to reach the same goal. The sad thing about listening to the guest speakers was that they were telling the audience about the low availability of jobs. The economy is affecting every aspect of media from print to the web.
After dinner the award ceremony began. Six awards were given out: Radio Personality of the Year, Programmer of the Year, Station Manager of the Year, Community Service, Public Relations, Music Director of the Year, and last, Station of the Year.
Stealing the title from WVFS, Wiley College took home the award for radio station of the year.
Shannon Levingston, general manager at Wiley was excited for her students telling me, “We train our students in every aspect from on air production to promotion.What we try to do is find out what their gifts are and find out what they are most interested in and get them involved in that area to see what they can do differently to be more creative in that area. I actually have a three strike policy, I had nine students out of eleven who were definitely deserving of this trip.”
Unfortunately Grambling did not walk away with any awards, but the students at the radio station work very hard. They understand the fundamentals of being a good radio host and they work daily to serve Grambling.