On Friday, April 15, 2011, CitrusTV members and alumni came together to celebrate another year of excellent news, sports and entertainment programming. Students and alumni gathered at Drumlins Country Club to eat, drink and be merry.
They also listened to CitrusTV alum and guest speaker, J.R. Whalen (Class of 1991), talk about his experience in the industry. Whalen currently works at both The Wall Street Journal Digital Network and CBS Sports.
The directors of each department handed out the following awards to deserving studio members for all of their hard work throughout the year. Christina Orazio, class of 2011, was awarded this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. You can watch this award’s video below. A special thanks goes to Josh Wetmore for stepping up to put the video together.
Entertainment
Best Producer: Jamian Shapiro, Float Your Boat
Rookie of the Year: Joshua Rivera, Syracuse After Hours
Best Sketch: “Adult Discovery,” Float Your Boat
Best Actress: Alliy Drago in “Fall Rush 2010″ on Float Your Boat
Best Actor: Sam Klemmer in “Reality Show Cameraman” on Syracuse After Hours
Best Director: Ben Rosen for “My Retainers” on Float Your Boat
Best Writer: Billy Waters, Syracuse After Hours
News
Best Reporter: Lorne Fultonberg
Best Anchor: Clay LePard
Best Weather Forecaster: Chris Wilner
Rookie of the Year: Megan McNally
Best News Package: Lorne Fultonberg
Best Producing Team (led by an Executive Producer): Hannah Kollock, Tuesday News
CitrusTV is in a state of celebration this week, after receiving the notification that two of its sports programs have moved on to the final judging round of the College Emmys. This nationwide competition, run by the Emmy Foundation, has selected episodes of CitrusTV’s On the Bench and ‘Cuse Countdown as “two of only six shows in the entire nation that are in the final ‘blue ribbon round’” of the sports/newscast category, said the station’s general manager, Ryan Balton.
“Everyone is extremely excited about this special honor,” Balton continued, and they have good reason to be. Winners of the College Television Awards are presented with as much as $2,000 in prize money, as well as free film stock, educational software, and the opportunity to pitch their show to a development executive.
“The fact that two of our sports shows made it to the final round is something the entire station should be proud of,” said Amy Johnson. Johnson, along with Scott Grodsky, was the executive producer for one of the advancing shows. “It says a lot about our station and our department.” Balton echoed this sentiment, saying, “the honor represents more than just excellence by one producer, show or department. It represents excellence station-wide.”
The Emmy Foundation will announce the winner and the recipient of the College Emmy on February 26, but until then, as Johnson put it, “all of the producers are just really excited…to see how everything turns out.”
CitrusTV is dedicated to serving the Syracuse community every day. We pride ourselves on delivering professional content faster and in more detail than any other student news media organization on campus. For more information about the College Emmys, On the Bench, ‘Cuse Countdown, or any of CitrusTV’s other regularly produced programs, visit www.CitrusTV.net or contact Evan Davis, CitrusTV Promotions Director, at edavis@citrustv.net.
This year, the CitrusTV Awards Banquet (coordinated by Leah Gebler ’12, Director of Alumni Relations/Events) was held on April 18, 2009 at the Drumlins Country Club right here in Syracuse! After a brief cocktail hour with cash bar, the 75+ station members in attendance sat down to a dinner catered by Drumlins.
CitrusTV's Executive Staff. Back row L-R: Bill Sharp '12, Wes Purvis '10, Jaime Sasso '10, Jon Erwin '10, David Resnick '10, Jaclyn Schillinger '11. Front row L-R: Sheetal Kotha '10, Spencer Raymond '10, Leah Gebler '12
After all had ate, drunk, and been marry, keynote speaker Dave Ryan ’89 (CitrusTV Alum and veteran ESPN announcer) began his address to the station. He touched on the many things that could go wrong on one’s first day at a new station, rambunctiously relating his first day the audience. Ryan emphasized both networking and high grades as the key to job success out of college. As an adjunct professor at the Newhouse School, teaching a sports reporting class, Ryan professed his belief in grades over experience, regardless of industry. A student with a 3.5, he said, would nearly always receive a job offer over a student with a 3.0 and mile-long resume.
At the conclusion of Ryan’s speech, General Manager Jaime Sasso ’10 took the podium to give a very complementary “Year-In-Review” to the station, highlighting achievements in programming and modernization of technology used to produce different shows.
Following Sasso’s speech, Spencer Raymond ’10 (News Director and emcee for the night’s awards) initiated the awards ceremony. A total of 21 awards were given out between four departments: Promotions, News, Sports, and Entertainment. The final award, presented by Sasso, was the “Lifetime Achievement Award”, which was given to Gordon Brookes ’09 (a 3-year member of CitrusTV Executive Staff and various station departments). The station screened a video tribute (see below) to Brookes, in which station members close to the winner reflected on his strengths, talents, and favorite flavor of cookie. Brookes made a short acceptance speech which concluded the event, and enticed all to continue to contribute as much of their time and energy that they could to CitrusTV.
Station members collected their commemorative “CitrusTV” shotglasses, much to Ryan’s chagrin, and continued to mingle over drinks before heading back to campus. This year’s Awards Banquet was certainly a success!
CitrusTV’s weekly pregame show — Cuse Countdown — highlighting the revenue sport of the season will air live this Saturday (February 7th) at 11:30 am on the Orange Television Network prior to the Syracuse/Villanova men’s basketball game.
With Cuse Countdown before the game and Orange Press Pass after, CitrusTV will be providing wall-to-wall coverage for the Syracuse fan.
Saturday’s show will not be Countdown’s first live show of the school year. In the fall, Countdown aired on Time Warner Sports 26 from the Carrier Dome directly prior to the Syracuse/Cornell men’s basketball game.
The production will be led by executive producer Scott Grodsky ’11 and associate producers AJ Donatoni ’10 and Landon Stolar ’10. Donatoni, Dan Moscaritolo ’11 and Kevin Ware ’11 will be featured on air.
“Obviously the opportunity to produce live television is an exciting challenge,” said Grodsky. “The Countdown team will be working hard in the coming week to make a successful live show.”
Cuse Countdown regularly airs at 4:30 on Friday on Time Warner Sports 26 and throughout the week on the Orange Television Network. Check out the Cuse Countdown page for full episodes and clips from the show.
