MCTV News

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Tom Schwab started working at MCTV News when the show was still in its infancy. During his days as a freshman at Marist College, Tom, along with his friend Lark Anton, befriended MCTV's news director, Meredith Engler. Engler says she was intrigued by Tom and Anton's enthusiasm and tenacity, so she decided to offer them executive roles in the news operation. The two were named assistant news directors and the roles not only came with the chance to help execute ideas and create the show, but the luxury of choosing when they wanted to anchor a newscast or report on a story.

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During Tom's sophomore year, Engler decided to leave MCTV and hand over her torch to Tom making him news director. To understand the changes that he set forth within MCTV News as news director, it's important to be aware of MCTV's history.

Marist College Television was formed by students as a club in the fall of 1986. On October 26th of that year, MCTV debuted its first cablecast. To this day, the station operates as an internal closed-circuit cable television system for the campus. More important is its purpose to provide students with the opportunity to produce and direct television programs in a hands-on environment.

Nearly a decade later in 1994, MCTV moved from its tiny lighting booth at the Marist College theater to its own studio in the basement of Champagnat Hall (Freshman Residency). The basement ceiling was fitted with a light grid and dimmers were installed. Many of the shows that MCTV produced during its first ten-year period consisted of sports programs and various college events. That was until late 1994 when students pushed for more student-produced shows. 1994 also marked the year when Meredith Engler joined MCTV; she argued that Marist College Television needed its own student-produced newscast. Engler's wish came true in the fall of 1995. A local cable news outlet near Poughkeepsie donated a small news set to MCTV allowing the club to produce its first campus-oriented news program.

Over the past 15 years, MCTV has grown into one of the largest and most active clubs on campus, and in 1996 the club received much needed funding and support from members of the Student Government Association. MCTV is now able to cover campus athletics and events with multiple cameras allowing for better broadcast quality during field productions. The station continues to work closely with the Student Activities Department as well. Recently, the SAD allowed MCTV to hard-wire the Nelly Goletti Theater giving MCTV the capability to produce live theater events with more precision and clarity.

Engler's idea to begin a news program proved worthwhile. She now had a facility, staff, and a budget. What was lacking from the program was structure. That's where Tom came in. Soon after being appointed news director, Tom, having studied various news formats at NBC and NY1, developed a similar style for MCTV News by employing a comprehensive news layout. When Tom returned to Marist in his junior year, he introduced the following changes to the program: a revised run-down, news format, meeting itineraries, and operating guidelines from taping to editing. More important was Tom's executive department listings which were new roles created for dedicated students. These respected students would head-up individual departments which played a vital role to the overall success of the show's integrity. Tom's new management team consisted of various posts illustrated in the following hierarchical structure:

The structure also included a rigorous production schedule that began with a story meeting where department heads would collaborate on what the upcoming show's content should consist of. Various department heads would then distribute the story ideas to reporters and writers who were given deadlines to complete the assignments in time for the show. In addition to the advancements in personnel, show format, and news structure, there were several new ingredients Tom incorporated in the MCTV News program including: CNN News Source feed for b-roll, theme song/graphics/bumpers, studio face-lift, EJ library archive, and the capability of covering breaking news right up until and during show time.

The goal of MCTV News is to bring to Marist College a fresh, innovative, and accurate (closed-circuit) television news show. The program offers unique and fair reporting, creative and informative segments, and a skillful, knowledgeable crew who work behind the scenes to produce the finest in college television news. Moreover, the staff at MCTV News works together as a team in hopes of learning and participating in the art of television news.

MCTV News consists of five student-produced news programs per semester. The program deals with a wide array of topics including campus news, world and national events, student impact segments, and sports & entertainment. After the pre-production phase of planning which includes gathering elements for the newscast, such as packages, b-roll, and news stories, the show enters the production phase (Sundays - tri-weekly) and records various segments live to tape. Immediately following the production process, other segments/elements are added and edited into one half-hour program during the post-production process (Mondays - tri-weekly). The post-production process consists of editing the entire show -- a process which can take more than 9 hours to complete since many of the elements are edited via a linear editing bay. However, Marist College Television is currently in a digital transition which will allow the MCTV News programs to be edited on non-linear AVID based systems. This will not only mean better quality, but it will also help speed-up the post-production process.

In 1998, during his senior year, Tom decided to step down as news director and passed on the show to Kristina Brito. Brito was careful to keep the newly revised department up-and-running. In fact, the show continues to thrive from the structure Tom established in 1997. Recently the studio moved from its Champagnat location to the Marist College communications center in Lowell Thomas. The new studio is not only adjacent to the MCTV News' editing and EJ equipment facilities, but it is closer to faculty members and communication department heads. Tom always believed in the importance of having an on-campus news program considering more than 50% of the students who attend Marist are broadcast journalism majors, but he also wanted to align the student television club with the communications department. Shortly before he left Marist, he succeeded in doing so. He began a dialogue between the school of communications and MCTV officers. It was his hope that the communication department would act as a liaison between the SGA and MCTV, whereby helping to augment MCTV's budget and facility needs, needs the SGA were not always able to fulfill.

During his tenure with MCTV News, Tom was able to cover some extraordinary stories ... including a student who threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the roof of Champagnat Hall, a student protest against the Marist administration's denial of tenure for a popular English teacher, and the lack of communication between students and the Marist administration when a serial killer prayed on young women in Poughkeepsie. And although Tom is no longer with MCTV News, the show continues to evolve. In fact, in the wake of Tom's departure, various news directors have come and gone including Brito who left in 2000, Stephanie Koutsares and Vanessa Santos in 2001, followed by John Saginaro in 2002, Donna Stahlman in 2003, Ralph Filardo and Amer Nabil in 2004-06, and Natalie D'Agostino in 2007-08.