By Natalie Cioffari
Editor-in-Chief
Do you know the white house placed right in the middle of the North parking lot? Well, did you also know that it used to house WSHU, 91.1?
WSHU is one of the top national public radio stations, having nearly 300,000 listeners a week from Long Island, Hudson Valley, and Connecticut. They focus on transportation, the environment, the economy, education, and then the way they all kind of intersect with politics.
They also have one of the largest newsrooms in the region.
Now, that little white house in the North parking lot is partnering with Sacred Heart University’s School of Communication and Media Arts.
“I always knew of WSHU as a radio station, yet I had no idea that that Sacred Heart was starting a partnership with them,” said senior Laura Vero.
The exact details and the discussion of the partnership are still underway and evolving.
However, WSHU is immediately opening two internships to the media and production students: photography and videography.
With these two internships, there is hope that WSHU will not only have the article content, but the visual content as well.
“With photo and video, our stories can really reach more people,” said News Director Dan Katz. “Basically what we are looking to do is be able to interactive with the community better, and have stuff that’s accessible to more people.”
Students will have the opportunity to work directly with WSHU, creating content and producing projects that reach out to their thousands of listeners in many areas.
“We do cover a lot of local issues, but there has to be some meat to it,” said Katz. “It can’t be something that only the people living immediately around the area can be interested in, and that’s a strength of ours.”
Essentially, Sacred Heart University’s media students will be responsible for the visuals with WSHU. Sacred Heart has the state-of-the-art studios, and WSHU has the national accredited radio station.
“It’s really taking advantage of the resources that are right in our backyard,” said Katz. “It’s something we have done on the smaller scale in the past. I think that has been years in the making, and I think both sides knew this would be a good partnership.”
Professors at Sacred Heart are thrilled to be working with a radio station so close to our university.
“WSHU already provides the best news coverage to the listening the audience in Connecticut and Long Island,” said Coordinator of News and Broadcasting professor Joe Alicastro. “The station will be creating a news bureau right here in the Martire Business and Communication Center.
There is also a possibility of WSHU and the School of Communications and Media Arts to work together on a number of projects, including a potential debate this fall for this election season.
“WSHU and the media department are going to do so much content wise,” said Vero. “I am so excited to see how the company grows with the media students.”
WSHU also hopes to expand opportunities to graduate students, opening up two paid graduate positions sometime in 2017.
“The school has an amazing faculty, great students, and tremendous facilities – so you combine the two together, and you’ve got yourself a quality news organization,” said Katz.
If any students in the School of Communication and Media Arts are interested in either internship or the program itself, they are encouraged to email Dan Katz at dkatz@wshu.org.
