Southeastern Channel student named state's top student broadcaster
Wednesday, June 3, 2020 
by: Tonya Lowentritt
STATE'S BEST STUDENT BROADCASTER – Chris Rosato, a Southeastern Louisiana University senior from Mandeville, was named 2020 Student Broadcaster of the Year in Television by the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters. A news anchor/reporter for the Southeastern Channel's award-winning student newscast, “Northshore News,” Rosato is the fifth Southeastern Channel student to win the award in the seven years it has been given. The annual award winner is selected by the LAB from all student broadcasters in Louisiana.
HAMMOND – For the fifth time in the past seven years, a Southeastern Channel
student has been named the state’s top student broadcaster.
Chris Rosato, a senior from Mandeville, was named 2020 Louisiana Student Broadcaster
of the Year in Television by the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters at its annual
Prestige Awards luncheon.
“I believe it’s the climax of my college career,” Rosato said. “This was a result
of everything that I've been taught and the work that I put into the program at Southeastern.
As a college student, you look for reasons to validate the decisions you make as far
as a career path. Winning this award reassures me that I'm in the right place doing
what I should be doing.”
Rosato was selected from all college television students from throughout the
state by the LAB, made up of all television and radio professionals and stations in
Louisiana. Along with his acceptance speech at the luncheon, a highlight clip from
Rosato’s news stories and anchoring was shown for LAB members.
“The people that were judging me are potential employers in this field,” Rosato
continued. “So to be recognized as the best of all Louisiana students by these specific
people is incredibly humbling. To be able to stand at the podium and show the other
professionals in the room how I carry myself and where I've come from was an opportunity
that not many students get to experience.”
Rosato joins former Southeastern Channel reporters Erika Ferrando (2014), now
at WWL-TV Ch. 4 (CBS) in New Orleans, Paul Rivera (2015), currently at WESH-TV Ch.
2 (ABC) in Orlando, Fla., Dominique Brogle (2016), now at KTBS-TV Ch. 7 (ABC) in Shreveport,
and Wesley Boone (2018), now at KTAL-TV Ch. 6 (NBC) in Shreveport after working at
NBC Sports California in San Francisco, as previous winners of the prestigious award.
A Southeastern Channel student has won the award in all but two years since the award
was established in 2014.
“It’s a great honor that once again the Southeastern Channel has produced the
top student broadcaster in Louisiana,” said Rick Settoon, Southeastern Channel general
manager. “Our previous winners have taken advantage of the unique training that we
offer at the Southeastern Channel, and it’s catapulted them to top state, regional
and national awards. It has also prepared them for a stellar career in the industry
as evidenced by the fact they are already reporting in larger TV markets nationally
in such a short amount of time after graduation. I have no doubt that Chris will follow
suit.”
Rosato is a news anchor and reporter for the Southeastern Channel’s student newscast
“Northshore News,” recently named the second best student television newscast in the
nation by College Broadcasters, Inc. at its National Student Production Awards.
“Chris excels in all aspects of storytelling as a reporter,” Settoon said. “He’s
an excellent writer with outstanding voiceover and on-camera reporting skills, and
he performs them all so effortlessly and naturally. Chris is very creative with his
stand ups and live shots where he interacts with his surroundings to bring the viewers
there to the location of his stories. He also shoots and edits his packages well.”
“My approach to anchoring is to try and be as conversational as possible and
make the viewer feel as if I’m sitting in their living room with them,” Rosato said.
“My strength as an anchor is that I feel very comfortable doing that kind of work.
You have to have a certain level of confidence in yourself and be able to roll with
‘the show must go on’ mentality, especially when there are technical glitches, and
there can be many.”
Rosato co-anchored a Nov. 1, 2019 episode of “Northshore News” that recently
won a second place Mark of Excellence Award for “Best Overall College Newscast” given
by the Society of Professional Journalists for Region 12 comprised of universities
in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee.
He said working for the Southeastern Channel’s “Northshore News” newscast has
given him invaluable, real world training for a career in television news.
“The Southeastern Channel has offered me exceptional one-on-one instruction and
has met all of my work with constructive criticism that I then go on to apply to my
next story or show,” Rosato said. “The Channel has separated me from a lot of other
people I’m competing against by giving me the opportunity to cover real world current
event stories in the community with public officials and everyday people and not just
restrict me to on-campus assignments.”
The Southeastern Channel has won over 400 national, international, regional and
state awards in the past 17 years, including 17 awards from the Emmys. The channel
can be seen on Spectrum 199 in Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, Livingston and St. Helena
parishes, and its live 24/7 webcast can be seen on Roku, Apple TV and thesoutheasternchannel.com
which includes video on demand. The Southeastern Channel can also be accessed on Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
