GSU students get internships, late-night GPB TV programming in exchange for WRAS airtime

• Joeff Davis/CL File
• Internship plan promised as part of GSU-GPB deal sticks students on state media outlet’s sister channel.

Sometime next summer, Georgia Public Broadcasting will begin airing 12 hours of television programming created by Georgia State University students. The original content, however, won’t air on GPB’s main TV channel, but on GPB Knowledge, one of the state media network’s smaller channels, during the evening and early morning hours each day.

Three months ago, GSU and GPB announced a two-year, $150,000 agreement that allowed the state media network to enter Atlanta’s radio market for the first time. GPB received rights to broadcast nearly 100 daytime hours each week on Album 88, WRAS 88.5-FM, a station that had previously been managed by students for more than four decades. In exchange, GSU President Mark Becker said some students would receive “unprecedented access” to GPB resources.

David Cheshier, chairman of GSU’s communications department, says students will play a major role in creating original content for GPB Knowledge. He says the television partnership, which features programming about cultural events held across the state, will give journalism and film majors TV training experience.

“The core trade-off between GSU and GPB in the contract was the exchange of radio hours for TV hours,” Cheshier tells Creative Loafing. “It’s the same logic that’s been defended by those concerned about the status of the radio station. It makes a difference to know that the work you’re doing is being prepared for actual broadcast.”

GPB reaches 3.6 million households in Georgia and other surrounding states, according to spokeswoman Mandy Wilson. She declined to provide information about the viewership of GPB Knowledge — Atlantans can watch it on Channel 8.3 or Comcast Channel 246, nestled between Bounce TV and GPB Kids — but said that the channel can be viewed across the state.

Cheshier says as many as 200 students will be able to gain fieldwork, post-production, closed captioning, and marketing experience with GPB Knowledge. Most of the GSU students are likely to work on campus under the guidance of professional staffers who will supervise, train, and grow the student TV station. GSU will ask media partners to send them pre-existing content that will be used alongside original programming — a practice that will decrease as the school’s operation grows, Cheshier says.

Album 88 Alumni President Zach Lancaster remains skeptical about the university’s intentions. If GSU took the partnership seriously, he says it would have gone live this summer instead of next year. Current students won’t benefit from the partnership. And he questions whether officials were aware of the financial and student resources needed to produce 84 hours of television content on a weekly basis.

“I don’t think anyone realizes what GSU has set themselves up for with that commitment,” Lancaster says. “There’s not enough equipment, staff, facilities to meet their obligation within a year.”

Cheshier wants to grow its GPB internship program from five to as many as 25 students per year. GPB officials have pledged that its interns will produce work that prepares them for media careers, pointing to its collaboration with Mercer University’s journalism program as a potential model. Lancaster’s group unsuccessfully proposed a plan to GSU that guaranteed as many as 100 paid and unpaid media internships with students. He has doubts the university can mimic Mercer’s model to benefit disenfranchised WRAS student staff — or any GSU student.

“Historically speaking, state broadcasters employ interns for menial labor,” Lancaster says. “GPB has insisted this won’t be answering phones and grabbing coffee. It doesn’t replace having 70 students going on the air on a regular basis with WRAS.”