Student-Run WTOP Earns National Broadcasting Awards

Tara O'Donovan operating a camera at SUNY Oswego men's ice hockey

Student-run WTOP-10 TV station executive producer and special events director Tara O’Donovan ’20 operates a camera as part of a men’s ice hockey broadcasting crew that numbers between 20 and 30 students, depending on the game.

Always among the biggest events locally, the Oswego and Plattsburgh men’s college ice hockey rivalry games scored big on a larger stage, as coverage by SUNY Oswego’s student-run WTOP-10 TV station earned two national awards.

WTOP won two honorable mentions—for Outstanding Live Game Production in the Collegiate Student category for “Men’s Ice Hockey, Oswego vs. Plattsburgh” and Outstanding Live Non-Game Production in the Collegiate Student category for “SUNYAC Semi-Final Pre-Game Show”—at the SVG College Sports Media Awards. The awards, co-sponsored by Sports Video Group and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, officially recognized winners on May 30 at the SVG College Summit in Atlanta.

The national awards join a fourth-place honor in the Best Promo category presented at College Broadcasters Inc.’s National Student Electronic Media Convention in October 2018 for a one-minute piece by broadcasting and mass communication graduate Griffin Bruce ’18.

The station also earned three Excellence in Broadcasting Awards from the New York State Broadcasters’ Association in April, for Outstanding Feature News Story, Outstanding Specialty Programming and Outstanding Weathercast. WTOP sports director for 2018-19 Brittany Cairns ’19 added to the haul with a Syracuse Press Club second-place award in the College Television Sports Story category.

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