ASO broadcasting program set to air in Spring

To get on the air, the Associated Student Organization (ASO) is finding its wings.

Southwestern College’s ASO is getting closer to a long-standing project of starting up an internal broadcasting program.

ASO President Sayaka Ridley said the project has been in the works for a few years, but has run into obstacles along the way.

“We started it two years ago, before I was even here,” she said. “It’s just so hard to put it through. There’s a lot of things behind it that I wasn’t aware of until I became president.”

ASO leaders’ most recent obstacle has been technical difficulties with the program they are using to air the broadcasts on the TVs.

“We had to basically put a halt on it until we got the TVs up and running,” Ridley said.

Jonathan Higa, senior project clerk for the ASO, said that he has a better understanding of the program the ASO is using now and the project should be running in January.

Philip Leo Pascual, ASO Vice President of Public Relations, is one of the driving forces behind the project and is the anchor for the programs.

“When I was sworn in as VP of PR I felt like this broadcast program would be the central point of our administration,” he said.

Pascual said the program will feature events on campus, ASO information and will ultimately serve as a medium between the ASO and the student body. He said student government representatives want to inform their constituents about what the ASO is and what they do.

Ridley said the program will be useful to students.

“My personal view is that it would benefit the students a lot to know what’s going on on their campus,” she said. “I think that’s huge. That’s why we’re so anxious to get it through.”

There is currently no set budget for the program, according to Ridley.

“We didn’t allocate a certain amount of money for it and the reason why is because it’s practically free,” she said.

Pascual said the ASO is considering opening a scholarship of $150 to encourage students to submit an intro and outro for the episodes.

For video shooting and editing, the ASO is working with the SWC Cinema Arts and Media (CAM) club.

“Since we’ve collaborated with the CAM club, I feel like we can definitely get it up and running for the spring semester,” Pascual said.

So far, one video is ready to air, Pascual said, but by the spring semester the content will be irrelevant. ASO reps will resume recording when they have all TVs working. Episodes will air weekly. Their production schedule will start on Monday mornings at 8 a.m. They will submit the recordings to the CAM club, which will edit them and get the finished product back to the ASO on Fridays.

Broadcasts will be played in the student center building on the four TVs purchased at the end of the spring 2014 semester. Ridley said they may try to branch out in the future, but that it is not a current priority.

“We haven’t talked about expanding because we’re so focused on just getting it there,” she said.

Pascual said he wants the broadcast to be sustainable.

“I would hope that prior to me leaving, we would have a solid foundation so future administrations can pick up where we leave off,” he said.