Al Roker ’76 Returns to Campus to Teach, Tour and Telecast

America’s favorite weatherman and one of the university’s most loyal Lakers, Al Roker ’76 was on campus April 27-28, 2023, to teach, check out progress on the Hewitt Hall renovations and do some live hits for NBC’s Today show.

Students in CMA 490: Building an On-Air Career, which Roker co-taught with Prof. Michael Riecke, performed their “Live Ad Lib” assignment in the Al Roker ’76 Television Studio and were critiqued by the national media celebrity and meteorologist himself.

Each student took a turn delivering a “live” broadcast about a flooding disaster along 400 miles of the Mississippi River in front of a “green-screen” Fountain City, Wis. They were given eight facts about the situation and then had to deliver a 45-second report from the field without a formal script.

The students bounced from an on-camera shot to “B roll” footage — shot earlier in the day of the flooding along the river — back to an on-air wrap-up and toss back to the studio.

Natalie Barden ’24, a journalism major with a minor in business administration from Gansevoort, N.Y., volunteered to go first, and described the experience as “equally thrilling and terrifying.”

“Although doing a live hit in front of Al was nerve wracking, it was an incredibly valuable experience and I’m grateful to have been a part of it,” Barden said. “I learned so much from my critiques and from listening to the critiques he gave my classmates.”

Roker encouraged them not to bring any written notes or talking points up with them when it was their turn in front of the camera.

“Once you become proficient at live shots, you can do anything,” Roker told the students. “Anyone who does live shots can anchor, but the reverse isn’t necessarily true. To do this well, you have to know your material. You don’t use a written script.”

Roker also suggested that students who were waiting for their turn should go into the Marano Campus Center hallway and practice.

Jolie Santiago ’24, a broadcasting and mass communication major from New City, N.Y., took his advice and left the studio to practice before her turn.

“I wanted to get comfortable with my facts of the hit and think of how I wanted to deliver it,” Santiago said. “I believe that helped a lot. I wanted to give this live hit my best shot and I did! Al appreciated my puns and extra tidbits that I added to enhance the ad lib.”

Many of the students received similar feedback from Roker and Riecke about the importance of preparing more off camera so that they can do a better job of ad-libbing and sounding more conversational on camera.

Following class, university leadership gave Roker a hard hat tour of the Hewitt Hall renovation. The $80 million project, led by Cannon Design, will provide 132,285 square feet of innovative teaching spaces, studios and laboratories for broadcasting, graphic design, cinema and screen studies and related programs within the School of Communication, Media and the Arts (SCMA).

Former Project Coordinator Amy Enwright carried a tablet to show the 3D renderings of the various classrooms and student spaces throughout the tour of the three floors of Hewitt. SCMA faculty members and administrators described how the spaces would be used and what technology they expect to have in the classrooms and labs.

Roker remarked on how far the program had come since he was a student in the 1970s.

Early Friday morning, the Today show anchor did live broadcasts of his weather forecast from campus, including two live spots during the 8 a.m. hour with students and campus members. During the national TV broadcast, he gave a special shoutout to some signature Oswego strengths, including the men’s ice hockey team, the meteorology program, the broadcasting program and the business school.

“Shortly before his first live hit with a student crowd, a student presented Al with a Meteorology Club sticker,” Barden said. “Al also chatted a bit with members of the hockey team about their season. When he went live, he energetically showed the Meteorology Club sticker to the camera and mentioned the hockey team’s playoff run. It was really interesting to see the details he chose to include while on-air, in order to pull the audience into his surroundings and make the hit more engaging to watch. Obviously, he did a great job, and I really enjoyed getting to watch him work in-person and see the production set-up.”

Between the live shots, Roker shared advice with students.

“Enjoy this and take advantage of as much of this as you can,” he said, gesturing to the campus. “Whatever your major is, take as many courses that aren’t in your major … because that will make you a better individual.”

He said that he only took a meteorology class to fulfill a science requirement.

“I did not plan to be on television,” he said. “That’s another thing I’d say, be open to something different. My wife was a theater major and took a journalism class and that changed the course of her life. You never know what’s going to spark your interest. Just be open as much as possible.”

The students in his class said they feel incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to take this class and learn from the best in the business.

“[The class has been] one of the best things I’ve done at Oswego by a long shot,” Barden said. “Al has been incredibly generous with sharing his time, knowledge and experiences with us, and I’ve learned so much from him. I’ve particularly enjoyed the way Al always welcomes our questions and answers them honestly. He does not sugarcoat harsh realities of working in TV news, but also gives us genuine advice in hopes of helping us succeed and eventually advance to a high level.”

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