HAMMOND – For the seventh time in the past 10 years, a Southeastern Louisiana University student has been named the state’s top student broadcaster.
Taylor Nettle, a student sports reporter from Lacombe, has been named 2023 Louisiana Student Broadcaster of the Year in Television by the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters.
“I’m blessed and so grateful for what the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters has seen in me, what they see in my potential, and what I can become,” Nettle said. “It means a lot to know that I was selected for this honorable award for the whole state of Louisiana, and I am excited to see what the future holds.”
Nettle was selected from all college television students throughout the state by the LAB, made up of all television and radio professionals and stations in Louisiana. She was honored at the LAB’s annual Prestige Awards luncheon in Baton Rouge recently.
“The LAB is one of the most prestigious organizations, and it’s really the best of the best,” Nettle said. “Going to an event like that, where it’s all major radio stations and TV stations and professionals in the industry, when you walk into the room you are surrounded by people who’ve been in this industry, some for maybe 50 years.”
A Southeastern Channel student has won the award in all but three 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. “We’re especially thrilled for Taylor and so proud of her. She’s probably the most multi-skilled and talented student that we’ve ever had at the Southeastern Channel, which is saying a lot. She’s done it all- sports, news, entertainment shows, films, commercials- and she’s done it in every position as a reporter, anchor, writer, producer, remote and live director, actress, videographer, editor, and animator- all at an outstanding level.”
Nettle, who graduated this May as a communication major in television/multimedia journalism, has already been hired as a sports reporter for KTAL-TV Ch. 6 (NBC) in Shreveport, La., the top-rated sports station in the Shreveport area market. She will begin in June reporting on sports in the tri-state region for almost one million viewers daily in the Nielsen-rated market size of 89, or almost 400,000 homes.
“I am so excited for this opportunity because I’m going to be covering three different states- Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana- three D-1 universities, and a ton of high school sports, along with the Cowboys and the Saints,” Nettle said. “I really couldn’t ask for better sports to cover.”
“And on top of that, I feel so prepared for this,” she continued. “Of course, there is the nervousness of starting out in a new place and a new job and just overall being in the real world. But the amount of experience that I’ve had throughout my time in college and the ways that I’ve grown and been exposed to real-world situations and real-life situations, I feel way more prepared than I could have ever imagined to pursue this career and start my job at a station in a large market in Louisiana.”
The Southeastern Channel has won over 500 national, international, regional and state awards in the past 20 years, including 23 awards from the Emmys. The channel can be seen on Spectrum 199 in Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, Livingston and St. Helena parishes and at mthermonwebTV.com in Washington Parish. The channel’s live 24/7 webcast can be seen on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, the Spectrum App, and thesoutheasternchannel.com which includes video on demand. The Southeastern Channel can also be accessed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.