MHTV now controls all 24 hours of its programming after previously sharing time with Public Relations and Public Broadcasting Service.

“What happened was, economically, there just weren’t enough resources for those other entities to keep providing content for the channel,” said MHTV faculty adviser Ben Tigner. ”It made more sense to just give the channel to the MHTV students and let them run with it.”

MHTV is channel 34 on campus and channel 23 off campus.

Tigner, Broadcast and Cinematic Arts faculty, said the only thing that changed for MHTV is it has the ability to rerun its programs whenever it wants throughout the day. The station gained control of programming from 3 a.m. to 5 p.m. instead of four-hour slots at 5 p.m. and midnight.

“This year, we started a new program that we were unable to do before, where we simulcast the 91.5 FM morning radio show on MHTV. We put a camera in there and take the video feed along with the audio feed and air that in the mornings where, before, we would have had to compete with PBS feeds. It’s opened up some new opportunities for us.”

Coordinator of Video Laboratories for the School of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts Eric Limarenko developed the new program “Morning Shows,” which airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday. The show debuted Oct. 10 during the 91.5 FM Homecoming alumni takeover.

“Viewers get to be a fly on the wall and see the all the action take place real-time,” Limarenko said. “It also gives outsiders a chance to see how well developed the BCA program is at CMU and how talented our students are.”

“Morning Shows” consists of three shows airing on different days throughout the week, including “The Morning Blitz” Mondays and Wednesdays, “Up in Da Mornin’” Tuesdays and Thursdays and “Cody and Cody in the Morning” on Friday.

Limarenko said this is an exciting time for students, as they have a blank slate creatively to work with and a TV medium in the palm of their hands.

“With more air time, the remarkable, award-winning talent that is coming out of MHTV can reach a greater audience which, hopefully, will get more students excited and involved,” he said. “Being able to take ownership of the station is a thrilling opportunity, as well as a tremendous responsibility.”

And it did not cost a dime for the students or the university.

Parker spoke to students in Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium at
1 p.m. and at 7 p.m. in his first-ever campus visit.

He came because he is related to former journalism faculty member Elliot Parker and has distant family around the area.

CMU programming should take note of this. Students obviously wanted to see the co-creator of one of television’s most popular comedies.

They asked him questions, had a few laughs and overall enjoyed making the trip to Plachta Auditorium.

Compare that to last Friday, when rapper Fabolous and band Day 26 came to Rose Arena.

Long waits, a dreary turnout and a gaffe by Fabolous’ DJ (he greeted Michigan
State instead of CMU) plagued what could have been a better planned performance.

Program Board and On The Fly went from charging up to $22 to go to the show to giving tickets away for free at Wares Fair last Thursday.

And the price tag on that performance? $25,000, at least, for CMU programming.

Compare that to Parker’s lower-key visit, which consisted of him talking South Park and answering questions students submitted. Parker, who also had a hand in the film “Team America: World Police,” talked about his philosophy of South Park as a middle ground between extremists.

“No topic is off limits to the show” Parker said. “For me, it’s all or nothing.”

In short, the interaction was inspirational and personal with the students, and reached out to a much larger campus body.

Reassessing the situation

Elliot Parker deserves a lot of credit for bringing Trey to campus, and at no cost, for that matter.

Obviously, this is a rare occasion that happened to work out in the best interest of CMU.

It would be farfetched to expect this to happen regularly.

But it shows that someone associated with the university is thinking creatively and is capable of bringing in someone students want to see.

Program Board and On the Fly Productions are more than capable of doing the same thing. They have done it before.

T-Pain, Ludacris, Demetri Martin and Dane Cook are all testaments to the great acts students flocked to in the past.

More people on campus should think outside the box like Elliot did and find other ways (and connections) to get appealing people on campus to talk to the students and faculty.

Sometimes, as Elliot showed, it doesn’t take a single dollar.