8 minute read
Wall of Fame
Living Legends
Acclaimed alumni boost MTSU media college’s Wall of Fame to nearly 100 members
by Skip Anderson and Gina Fann
Six accomplished alumni joined the Wall of Fame in MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment in 2021.
The 2020–21 Wall of Fame members are Patrick Eaton, a 2009 graduate of the college’s then-Radio and TV Production program, now the Department of Media Arts; Lee Foster, a 2002 alumnus of the Department of Recording Industry; and John L. Pitts, a 1978 graduate of what is now the School of Journalism and Strategic Media.
The college also formally recognized three 2019–20 honorees after the pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 induction: Laura Cruz, a 2011 Radio and TV Production alumna included in the Media Arts group; Mike Molinar, a 1998 School of Music graduate with a Recording Industry minor; and Larry Ridley, a 2000 electronic media journalism alumnus added to the School of Journalism roster.
The six new honorees bring the College of Media and Entertainment’s Wall of Fame membership to 98.
Launched in 2000 to recognize outstanding alumni and community leaders from each of the college’s specialties and inspire current students to continue working toward their goals, the Wall of Fame is featured inside MTSU’s Bragg Media and Entertainment Building in an interactive digital display. Its membership includes many MTSU alumni nationally recognized in their fields.
Lee Foster
Lee Foster
Owner/managing partner, Electric Lady Studios, New York
When Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in New York City turned 50 in August 2020, no one had more reason to celebrate than Lee Foster.
Foster, a 2002 graduate from MTSU’s noted Recording Industry program, is widely credited with saving the iconic facility from collapse and then expanding the business model.
He credits his career in the music business to a tenacity that his mentors in the MTSU program saw at a time perhaps he didn’t.
That tenacity helped Foster—a self-confessed subpar student until he found the Recording Industry Department—advance from an unpaid internship to studio manager and co-owner.
When Foster took his first step onto the career ladder in 2002, he left a footprint in the ashes where the Music Industry v1.0 had stood until the peer-to-peer, free-music stampede blasted its revenue streams to smithereens. The morning he carried his suitcase from Penn Station to Greenwich Village, there were signs that the Electric Lady was teetering on the verge of insolvency. Most notably, the studio’s client base was dwindling from a slow stream to barely a trickle. But shuttering the studio meant shuttering a manifestation of Hendrix’s enduring legacy, and that was an outcome Foster, whose first real weekly paycheck would be $150, couldn’t fathom. After all, the studio had beaten the odds before, somehow remaining solvent when Hendrix died only 23 days after he hosted an A-list grand opening soiree.
But before Foster could save the studio, he first had to save his collegiate career.
The studio was famous from the start because its genreshaping founder was renowned across the globe as one of rock’s most inventive guitarists. But what would happen within its walls after his death at the age of 27 would propel the studio to iconic status. It’s where David Bowie and John Lennon would write and record the song “Fame” in under 24 hours and where Patti Smith would record her seminal debut album, Horses. It’s the studio where AC/DC recorded overdubs and mixed Back in Black, the sixth-bestselling album of all time, and where Led Zeppelin recorded Physical Graffiti. The Soulquarian movement torchbearers Questlove, D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, and Common took up residency at Electric Lady Studios for six years. Their departure coincided with the financial wrecking ball that Napster’s free file-sharing sent through the industry worldwide, leaving the studio in perilous straits.
“By my sophomore year, I got placed on academic probation, so I went home to help Dad with the farm, doing all that country stuff. I had given up on college. I started dating the small-town girl and wearing overalls, and I figured that’s what I would do with the rest of my life. But, six months in, I realized I had to give it one last try and went blazing back to MTSU with a newfound purpose.”
Joining the Recording Industry program, Foster soon aligned all aspects of his life with music. He started doing stagehand work in Nashville, Atlanta, and Louisville—setting up and tearing down big shows like the Rolling Stones and Elton John. Then he landed the internship he needed to graduate in faraway New York City at the famed studio Hendrix launched.
But the Electric Lady was in physical and financial disrepair, and its leaders were unsure how to move forward. Foster started assisting sessions—Badu was his first—but when a receptionist left, he asked to answer the phones instead.
“I worked hard, and I was stubborn and persistent. And I found ways to make myself useful: If the boiler wouldn’t work, I would figure it out and fix it. If the AC didn’t work, I’d figure out where to kick it to get it going again.”
The studio’s turnaround began when Americana artist Ryan Adams called Foster one morning at dawn to take him up on a recent offer he had extended to record at Electric Lady. They recorded the Easy Tiger album over the next few months.
The dominoes started to fall. Patti Smith returned to Electric Lady for her 2007 album Twelve. Soon the client list ranged from Kanye West to Taylor Swift. Grammy-winning projects, including Beck’s Morning Phase and Adele’s 25, were mixed at the facility. The momentum hasn’t stopped. As recently as 2020, artists including global pop phenomenon Lady Gaga have worked on their most recent projects at the studio.
Along the way, Foster expanded Hendrix’s original business to include a record label, content programming partnerships, and an engineer/producer management division.
“Much of what I learned at MTSU comes into play in my professional life. I recognize there are people who go to college and don’t use it, but I use every bit of it,” Foster summed up.
—Skip Anderson
"IT’S FASCINATING TO SEE THE DIFFERENT CAREER PATHS THEY’VE CHOSEN AND HOW THEY’VE USED THEIR UNIQUE TALENTS, GIFTS, AND PERSONALITIES TO CREATE BRAND-NEW PATHS."—DEAN BEVERLY KEEL
Patrick Eaton
Patrick Eaton
Senior technical project manager, Fuse Technical Group
Eaton, a senior technical project manager for film and television at Fuse Technical Group who joined the company in 2019, currently specializes in extended reality, known as XR, and virtual production for film environments.
He worked with the VER entertainment company now known as PRG Gear from 2013 to 2018 as a senior project manager with the concert touring division, where he developed new products alongside artists and creative teams for touring and innovative video systems deployment.
Among his touring and TV credits are work with Josh Turner, Women of Faith, Rascal Flatts, Twenty One Pilots, Shania Twain, Imagine Dragons, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and Gwen Stefani, as well as the MTV and VMA Movie Awards, Grammy performances, and a variety of live TV special events.
John L. Pitts
John L. Pitts
Sports editor, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
Pitts, sports editor for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo since 2006, has covered five Olympic Games and a variety of other national and international sports events. He led award-winning community weeklies in Warrenton, Virginia (1992–94), and Leesburg, Virginia (1994–95), before joining the staff of a northern Virginia public relations firm, News USA.
In 1996, Pitts was working as night manager at the Main Press Center at the Atlanta Olympics when the Centennial Park bomb exploded nearby. He helped with the treatment of several injured people and with conducting the late-night news conference where organizers announced that the Summer Games would continue. He joined the Decatur Daily in Alabama in 1999, worked at the Tupelo paper 2001–04, and spent a year at the Times Daily in Florence, Alabama, before returning to Tupelo.
Laura Cruz
Laura Cruz
Script supervisor, Nashville television series
Cruz works in the film and TV industry as a script supervisor, most recently on the ABC network limited series Women of the Movement, set to air during the 2021–22 season, and the Starz series Hightown.
Her credits also include script supervision for 81 episodes of the ABC/CMT series Nashville during 2014–18 and the 2018–20 CBS All Access thriller anthology series Tell Me a Story that also aired on The CW’s Nashville affiliate, WNAB.
Cruz’s feature film work includes the Lifetime release Patsy & Loretta and the 2021 film Son. She also has worked on commercials for brands that include Nissan, Coors Light, Band-Aid, and Hershey.
Mike Molinar
Mike Molinar
General manager, Big Machine Music
Molinar is the general manager for Big Machine Music, which has been in the top 10 of Billboard’s best music publishing and country publishing lists since 2017.
He was elected in 2019 to the boards of the National Music Publishers Association, the trade association for the American music publishing industry, and the Mechanical Licensing Collective, the nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Copyright Office as part of the historic Music Modernization Act of 2018.
He’s also a board member for Music Health Alliance, a nonprofit that helps music professionals find medical and financial health care solutions, and for the Country Music Hall of Fame Education Council. His previous roles include working with Reba McEntire’s original Starstruck Writers Group and Cal IV Entertainment as well as his own startup businesses, including Effusion Entertainment.
Larry Ridley
Larry Ridley
TV host, SportsNet New York; update anchor, CBS Sports
Ridley has been a sportscaster and anchor for SportsNet New York since 2016 and has his own weekend esports show on the Black News Channel, which features his Compete4ever Madden League and 2K Association series. He also provided voices for the Madden NFL video game for five years.
The 1994–98 Blue Raider football player hosted the E.A. Madden NFL Championship Series in 2014– 18, as well as the NBC Sports Universal Open Rocket League Championships and the NBA-run NBA 2K League at NYC Studio in 2018.
He’s currently the host of Esports Xtra, a live call-in show on traditional sports, esports, and gaming that airs on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook.
—Gina Fann
