Southeastern students honored by Associated Press
Thursday, May 16, 2019 
by: Tonya Lowentritt
SOUTHEASTERN CHANNEL STUDENTS WIN FOUR AP AWARDS - Students at the Southeastern Channel recently brought home four top awards from the 2018 Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press College Broadcasters. The students won first place for “Best Sports Story” by Andrew Scherer of New Orleans, second place for both “Best Videography” and “Best TV Reporter” by Amanda Kitch of Covington, and second place for “Best Sportscast or Sports Program” for the Southeastern Channel student sportscast “The Big Game.” Award recipients shown include members of “The Big Game” crew, including, from left, John Sartori of Mandeville, Richie Solares of New Orleans, Dylan Domangue of Houma, Gabrielle Cox of Hammond, and Lily Gayle of Greensburg.
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University students working at the Southeastern
Channel won four awards at the 2018 Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press College
Broadcasters awards at the AP’s annual journalism conference.
The annual contest for colleges in both states was conducted by the Louisiana-Mississippi
AP Broadcasters and Media Editors. The AP is a not-for-profit news cooperative representing
thousands of U.S. newspapers and broadcasters.
The awards competition featured students from all universities in the two-state
region competing in television, radio and online categories where only first and second-place
honors were given. In addition to an awards luncheon, students attended panel discussions
and participated in one-on-one sessions with industry news professionals.
Andrew Scherer of New Orleans won first place in the “Best Sports Story” category
for his feature story on Southeastern basketball star Marlain Veal.
“Very good use of natural sound, and the reporter has a great delivery. This
was a great sports story,” judges said of Scherer’s work.
Scherer is now a TV news and sports reporter at WXXV-TV (FOX/NBC) Ch. 25 in Gulfport,
Miss. His story can be seen at http://thesoutheasternchannel.com/blog/2018/11/28/marlain-veal/.
Amanda Kitch of Covington won second place in the “Best TV Reporter” category
for her story on the St. Tammany Parish “Skeeterbomber,” a small, refurbished plane
used to spray mosquitos by the parish’s mosquito abatement department. She has won
“Best TV Reporter” honors for three straight years, including first place in 2017
and “Best of Show” the same year.
Kitch also won second place in the “Best Videography” category for a composite
of her videography of news stories for “Northshore News,” the channel’s award-winning
student newscast.
“This was good story telling with excellent use and placement of video,” judges
said of Kitch’s entry.
Kitch is set to graduate this month and has already been hired as a TV news reporter
for WAFB-TV (CBS) Ch. 9 in Baton Rouge. Her stories can be seen at http://thesoutheasternchannel.com/blog/2019/01/25/amanda-kitch/ and http://thesoutheasternchannel.com/blog/2018/11/28/mosquito-plane/.
The Southeastern Channel student sportscast “The Big Game” took second place
in the “Best Sportscast or Sports Program” category for its March 8, 2018 episode.
Last year “The Big Game” won first place in the category. The story can be viewed
at http://thesoutheasternchannel.com/blog/2019/01/09/the-big-game/.
Among those contributing to the winning episode were co-anchor Scherer, co-anchor
Dylan Domangue of Houma, guest anchor Richie Solares of New Orleans, reporter Wesley
Boone of Alexandria, reporter Schuylar Ramsey of Springfield, and producer-director
Freddie Rosario of Luling.
Boone is currently a sports anchor-reporter for KALB-TV (NBC) Ch. 5 in Alexandria,
while Rosario is a director and videographer at the same station.
“We’re excited that our students have won these prestigious Associated Press
awards, several for the second or third year in a row,” said Southeastern Channel
General Manager Rick Settoon. “It reflects our high-quality and professional standards
in broadcast journalism training at the Southeastern Channel, evidenced not only by
these awards, but by the large number of students who have landed jobs and are succeeding
in the professional television industry. Judges stated that our students’ work looks
like it was done by professionals. That’s a tribute to their enterprise, creativity,
hard work, and editorial and technical talents.”
The Southeastern Channel has now won over 400 awards in the past 16 years, including
17 Emmy awards. It has also been named first place in the nation six times by College
Broadcasters, Inc. and first-place “Best College TV Station in the South” seven times
since 2007 by the Southeast Journalism Conference, made up of 40 universities in an
eight-state region in the southeast U.S.
The Southeastern Channel can be seen on Spectrum 199 in Tangipahoa, Livingston,
St. Tammany and St. Helena parishes. The live 24-7 webcast and video on demand archives
can be seen at thesoutheasternchannel.com. The channel is on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
