Elevator music, jazz, national news casts, power point…
Typical programming for the campus cable access Channel 6.
However, for the past few days, the same programming is being aired on the student-run television station RAM-TV21.
Just when the Winston-Salem State community was informed that RAM-TV21 programs would be returning this fall, the station experienced another setback.
This past summer, the fiber optic line in front of Hall-Patterson [the home of the television station] was cut during a construction project.
The RAM-TV21 staff has known about the problem with the fiber optic line for two months.
Kevin Fuller, mass communication technician, said that RAM-TV21 staff is now waiting for the fiber optics to be hooked up.
“It is as if they [RAM-TV21] are getting denied of their ability to express themselves,” Fuller said. Fuller said that when these problems are fixed, Channel 21 will be running actual programs and that the programs are ready.
In the meantime, RAM-TV21 staffers provided a DVD featuring their programs to the technicians in the Anderson Center so they could use a fiber optic line to feed video throughout the campus.
The technicians did not air the student-produced programs that were sent by the RAM-TV staff, said Terrance Hobbs. Hobbs is one of the RAM-TV21 station managers. Instead, RAM-TV21 viewers are seeing campus announcements because channels 21 and 6 are simultaneously airing the same programming.
Leslie Miles said, “We [Hobbs and Miles] have no idea why our scheduled programs were not being aired.” Miles, a RAM-TV21 station manager, is a senior mass communications major from Mount Olive, N.C.
But Richard Edwards, director of multimedia technology, said that he imports what RAM-TV21 provides into the system, and it plays back on Channel 21.
RAM-TV21 programming is scheduled to show footage from the “I-40 Comedy Show” from Sept. 3, “Battle of the Bands” from Sept. 5, and student-produced documentaries.
Hobbs said that he has several shows that he has produced for RAM-TV21.
At the beginning of fall semester, RAM-TV21 staff had meetings and training sessions.
“It took a while for us [RAM-TV21 staff] to get RAM-TV21 started,” Hobbs said.
“We are in a great position to keep this station up and running full time this year and years to come.”