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Thursday, May 1, 2008
On Location TV19 - A Community Production
St. Paul, MN
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Hill-Murray boys hockey coach Bill Lechner has a lot of praise for his championship team and all those who support high school hockey in the state of Minnesota. He also appreciates the coverage his team got all-season long from the local community television production department, On Location TV19.
On Location’s sports production season begins at the start of each school year and wraps up when school lets out in June. During this 10 month period, TV19’s mobile production truck rolls onto the school grounds of what staff and the sports announcers refer to as the “Fab Five”, high schools located in the northeast suburbs; Hill-Murray, Mahtomedi, North St. Paul, Tartan and White Bear Lake.
Mobile truck coordinator Arlin Becker and sports production coordinator Nicholas Anderson stay in close contact with the athletic directors and coaches all year long to schedule a wide variety of game coverage. Becker, a seasoned producer, knows how much viewers like watching sports at this level of play. “Our goal is to try to reflect a little bit of most of the sports activities for both boys and girls,” Becker said. “So one week we might cover boys wrestling and the next week girls hockey.”
TV19 sports coverage isn’t only focused on the mainstream high school sports. Viewers have also enjoyed coverage of adapted floor hockey and other community supported sporting events.
In 2007, the community-based production department located in White Bear Lake presented cable viewers complete coverage of over 30 high school games and 16 live “Sports Path” programs. “Sports Path” is a 30-minute, bi-weekly, wrap-up show hosted by Tim Peterson and Johnny Kane, who also do the play-by-play and color commentary during game coverage.
Like most of the crew who help to make the productions happen, Peterson and Kane volunteer their time with On Location TV19. “I’m truly happy to be a part of something that presents high school sports in such a professional manner,” Kane, a seasoned sports announcer and commentator said. “I love doing this and I’m just grateful to have the opportunity to do something I have always been so passionate about.”
On Location works closely with Twin City colleges and universities in offering internship opportunities for students interested in entering the media production field. Many interns and community volunteers have gone on to full-time paid positions in television production and believe that their hands-on experience with TV19 paid off.
Production department director, Judy Skeie-Voss, sees more and more vibrant, local coverage coming in the future. “Visually our productions have improved immensely,” she said. “Programming found on Channel 19 is digitally presented off of a computer server and our goal is to provide high definition coverage of all of our productions in the future. We’re looking to also provide programming on our website so if you happen to be out of town when the big game replays, you’ll still be able to see it on your laptop.”
On Location TV19 will be entering its 10th year of operation in 2009 and boasts numerous local and national program production awards including back-to-back first place national Alliance for Community Media “Hometown Awards” in the category of “Sports Coverage” for 2006 and 2007.
Like the great local teams this production department covers, On Location TV19 hones its talent to create winning seasons of sports programming for coaches like Bill Lechner, the kids who play and the parents and viewers who want to relive those precious high school sports moments long after the game is over.
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A collection of this month's best action photos.
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