When the GoingGetsTough

Ever y cluband organizationhad astandard press release Some were more creative than others; some focused primarilyon thefacts. LU-TV had theirs despitethebattles they fought behind the scenes.

Theirreleaseread:

"WLBU-TV, or better known as LU-TV, was Liberty'sstudentrun,partiallystudent-produced televisionstation Students were involved in management, programing,master controland productionofprograming

"Students were also given the opportunity to write,direct, produce and host their own programs."

Itwas alltrue. But, thestation was more thanstudentopportunities. It was studentproblems and studenttriumphs.

One of itsfirstbattles was the Oct. 14 issue of the "Liberty Champion." Itcarried an editorialclaiming the station was carriedon butahandful ofreceivers and callingforare-evaluation of its worth totheuniversity.

Jackie Beatty,station manager, responded by statingthestation is carried by 18 public monitors

She alsopointed out thelearning experience thatit had forthe students who were involved Beatty alsopointed out thatLiberty was the only Christian university with such a program.

Beatty did say students often turnedtheLU-TV monitorsoffor changed their station This,despitetheefforts oftheTV station, drasticly reduced viewership and created the illusion that the station was never seen

The station also battled with a variety of financing problems

Despite $100,000 in equipment being purchased for the fallsemester, thestaffstill did not have what itdeemed adequate A combination of space problems and lack of equipment forced acreativesolution.

Students, in order to produce their programs, worked around the clock. The TV studio was rarely empty.

Faculty advisor Steven Troxel said the problem reached beyond even that solution There still was notenough time forevery one tohave adequate timein the studio

"Usually there are a few students who want to work during thebreak,"Troxell said, illustrating the severity of the problem."Thisyear, the break was booked solid There were only two open time slots for the week on a 24-hour schedule Thiswassupposed to be their time off."

This was detreimental tostudentswho hadprograms they were ready to produce for the station

"We had good program ideas for the spring semester," Beatty said "They were creativeandwellthought But,we didn't have theequipment and room to do what we wanted The students requests to produce the programs were denied." Yet, along withthetoughbattles came sweet victories Some studen-produced programs went ahead fullsteam Others continued on theircourse ofglory.

Damond Nelson wrote andproduced a show thatwas similarto the sit-com, "Cheers." The show's main characterwas abartender who turned his bar into a dry barafterhissalvationexperience.

A documentary program focusing on the philosophy of Christian and secular music was produced by Don Dartt He decided to do the program to educate students about music and to promote open discussion of the subject

The programs were added to the list of LU-TV student produced programs. Others included "InsideOut," "Blue Ridge Heartbeat," "What's Happenin" and "LU Jams."

"The Morgan Hout Football Show" was also student produced It, however, was avictory in itself. The program is nationallysyndicated tofivenetworks.

Beatty said the Hout show reaches an audience greater thanFamilyNet,thenetworkcarried by the monitors when LUTV is notbroadcasting

"The publicity benefits theuniversity as a whole," Beatty said, further driving home her point thatthestationwas importantfor the university

Balancing thegood and thebad, learning to overcome whatever obstacle, were other skillsstudents involved with LU-TV learned For LU-TV, when the going got rough it meant the rough got going. The 1988/89 year proved that

Academics

Infinity isthe lecture. Itisthe research and the work ofa term paper. Itis thestudyfor thebigtest. It is beyond thedescription of words. It is the churning inthebrain and the movements ofthehands. Infinity is readingand theessays. It is takinggood notes and studying theright material. It is new programs, new professors and theSchool ofGeneral Studies. It is the balanceofeach class. It is theundefinable, outside of thephysicalclassroom.

Blue desks and white boards arejelly doughnuts. As are the textbooksand theLiberty notepad. They are the lost pen and the broken lead. They are the scantron and its little bubbles. They are the eight-digit numbers written on allone'spapers. They include the required readings and volumes of scribblednotes. They are the status sheets and registration forms. Jellydoughnuts are the class listings on thewalls and the face that was STAFF when you enrolled. They are the tangibles of the studies. We deal with both. We grasped at the infinities while controlling with the jelly doughnuts throughout the 1988-89academic year.