The UVMtv Story

A brief history of UVMtv…

Pre -2001 Start-up

UVMtv, was started by students Nick Haggarty and Logan Junger. Before then it was located in the hall of Billings up until the summer of 2000 when it was moved into the basement of Coolidge. This was primarily done in response to the Residential Life contract with the local cable company, placing the “main head room,” (the hub for all the campus’ AV equipment) in the basement of Coolidge. Residential Life investigated the possibility of getting a movie channel package out on its closed-circuit, cable feed, but the price to do so was found to be astronomical. Therefore, Res Life invested a substantial amount of capital into UVMtv, allow- ing it to get on its feet as a movie provider to campus. This avenue was not only far cheaper than going with a carrier such as HBO, but also had potential benefits for fostering community on campus.

UVMtv worked with a joint partnership with Res Life up until the Spring of 2005 when all funding was cut. The Student Government Association now pays for its primary cost, its contract with Swank Inc., which provides licensing for UVMtv’s movies; however, only a trivial amount above that cost is covered by SGA.

2001-2008

UVMtv was revitalized in 2001 by Sean Dempsey and Gregg Pauletti as on-campus, closed circuit movie station. UVMtv’s First show “UVMtv” debuted in 2005 and has been a staple of UVMtv programming ever since. The location of UVMtv’s first studio was in basement of Coolidge Hall on Redstone Campus.

In 2008, Studio operations moved to Davis Center when UVMtv received a desk in the SGA office; previous productions had been filmed in UVM Media Services (Rowell Studios). After meeting with UVM administrators in 2009, UVMtv was awarded a space on the first floor of the Dudley H. Davis Center. The “Grand Opening” of the new studio was launched on August 31st, 2009

2009-future

The new studio in the Davis Center provided many new opportunities that helped UVMtv break many records. For instance, UVMtv saw its highest membership of 25 members, the acquisition of the Tricaster (TV Station in a box), new camera equipment, and the Televue Server which is responsible for scheduling all of UVMtv’s channels.

In 2009, UVMtv was also able to go LIVE from the studio for the first time. 2009 marked the beginning of having multiple consistent shows such as: UVM Weekly, Mountains of Desire (UVM’s first on-campus soap opera), Tech-no-logic, BluesDay Tuesday, Excuse the Intrusion, and Dirty Pop.

UVMtv continues to grow with a newly created website UVMtv.net and with increasingly dedicated individuals has made our station what it is today. We are constantly growing, and the bigger we get the more opportunities there are for our student members.

2010 dawned a new training program which has laid the groundwork for the future of UVMtv and the way we bring in new members to our welcoming organization.

UVMtv has had six presidents in its history: Sean Dempsey, Alexandra (Bunny) Rutherford, Greg Schondelmeier, Jeremy Baras, Alex Nenopoulos, and our current leader, Erik Ryden. It is the hard work and dedication of these individuals that have made our station what it is today. We are constantly growing, and the bigger we get the more opportunities there are for our student members. If you are at all interested, definitely stop by our studio anytime, or email us at uvmtv@uvm.edu.