L AST WORD
Out of the Blue
MTSU’s signature TV show marks 10 years of telling campus stories In November 2010, without much fanfare, Tom Tozer welcomed viewers to a new TV program, Out of the Blue. He promised it would feature “light and lively segments” about the University “and perhaps even some more serious segments as well.” The campus magazine show, which now airs on 42 public, educational, and governmental TV stations in 17 states as well as Nashville’s NewsChannel 5+, still follows the formula that Tozer put into place as MTSU’s director of news and media relations. Tozer, who retired in 2011, returned to the anchor chair for a program last November celebrating Out of the Blue’s 10th anniversary. He joined current host Andrew Oppmann (’17) in welcoming back former student hosts Nicki DeCroce (’11), an entertainment personality in Nashville; Chris Davis (’15), an Emmy-winning reporter for NewsChannel 5 (WTVF); and Jessi Grace (’16), a Colorado State University instructor. Former staff hosts on the look-back show included Mike Browning (’17), now public information officer for the city of Murfreesboro, and Drew Ruble, senior editor for university publications. The show also can be seen on MTSU’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/mtsunews.
staff reports
“What better place to work than on the MTSU campus and to be able to have that as your beat, to be able to go around with a camera and cover all the exciting things there?” Browning said. The program, produced by the College of Education’s Center for Educational Media and the Division of Marketing and Communications, was named the best TV show by the Tennessee College Public Relations Association the past two years. In 2020, a series of twiceweekly, web-only specials on MTSU’s response to COVID-19 brought its first national honor, a Silver Telly Award. MTSU
MTSU recently rebranded its educational resource cable TV channel to “True Blue TV.” True Blue TV is now home to the long-running Out of the Blue program, the place to view other campus events live, and rebroadcasts of videos produced for online formats Watch on Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV; online at mtsu.edu/trueblueTV; AT&T U-verse 99 in middle Tennessee; and other local cable systems.
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