The writing, videography and production team of broadcasting and mass communication majors Daniel Frohm, Joseph Salvatore and Shaune Killough tied for third in the instructional/educational category for a video made under contract with the Central New York Interoperable Communications Consortium. In radio hard news reporting, Patrick Malowski took honorable mention for a piece titled "Harlem Shake Translation Controversial."

     "I didn't expect it at all," said Killough, a sophomore from Glenwood Landing on Long Island. "The fact we were all able to win this award is incredible."

     Through communication studies faculty member Marybeth Longo and a production company she helped form, Great Laker Communications at SUNY Oswego, Killough and teammates Frohm, a junior, and Salvatore, a senior, set to work on a Motorola-sponsored $10,000 project to produce an explanatory film about the need for reliable communications among the wide variety of first responders in New York state. The project had mentoring and assistance from Longo and from sound and lighting professionals.

     "What made this project good is we all had different fortes," said Killough, who was in charge of all post-production, including editing and graphics.

     Killough said one reason he came to SUNY Oswego was that the college's broadcasting program "wants you to get your hands on the equipment right away," rather than as an upperclassman. He said he produced his first commercial for the student-run WTOP-TV in his first month in school, and he continues to work at the Campus Center-based station.

     The Interoperable Communications Consortium project took hands-on a step further, enabling the students to shoot video from the Air 1 helicopter and to work "many more hours than any of us cares to admit" on a video that's in professional service today, Killough said. Nine counties in Central and Northern New York cooperate with the consortium's project for an effective cross-agency mobile radio communications system for E-911, fire, law enforcement and other responders.

Nationally Competitive

     By contrast, Malowski, a senior broadcasting and mass communication major, put together his Harlem Shake audio report as part of a multimedia package for an upper-level broadcast journalism course taught by Michel Riecke of communication studies. Malowski, from Herkimer, seized on the opening line of Baauer's version of "Harlem Shake" that, translated from Spanish, says, "with the terrorists."

     "Professor Riecke wanted us to think outside the box and find something interesting," Malowski said.

     The resulting news package -- with interviews from students, a professor of Spanish and others about the dance craze and the song's controversial wording -- was published on the SUNY Oswego broadcast journalism students' blog, Oswego News.

     "I am just excited to know my work can stand out in a national competition," finishing fourth among 80 entries, said Malowski, who will take his SUNY Oswego experience into the work force after Commencement in May.

     The BEA competition drew entries from many colleges and universities, including University of Maryland, Ithaca College, Arizona State University and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Judging for the BEA's Festival of Media Arts focused on professionalism, the use of aesthetic and creative elements, structure and timing, production values, technical merit and overall contributions to the discipline.

     The awards presentation will take place at the organization's national convention, April 6 to 9 in Las Vegas.

     For more information on broadcasting and mass communication or on any of the more than 110 other majors and programs at SUNY Oswego, visit www.oswego.edu.