By Andrew Smith, OMAHA, Neb. – The Omaha News has been around for some time now. It actually predates the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media by a couple years, which it calls home.
The college — which holds the School of the Arts, the School of Communication and the School of Music — is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, offering room to reminisce on the history of its newscast.
The show first hit The Knowledge Network’s airwaves in 2003. Professors Chris Allen and Michael Hilt, who’s now the CFAM dean, sought to give journalism students a comprehensive capstone.
“What we were searching for was a way to allow students to have, as near as we could develop, a real-life experience of working in a newsroom,” Hilt said. “In the beginning we were creating something brand new, so we couldn’t lean on the past.”
There wasn’t much of a budget for sets, but the show received some hand-me-down furnishings from local television stations.
“When one of the stations would decide they were going to get a new set, they would call us up,” Hilt said. “We had to figure out a way to get it from their station onto campus, but we did whether it was renting a truck and getting students to help load it onto the truck and unload it.”
In the first show on Nov. 25, 2003, reporters visited Lauritzen Gardens and a former dance shop in Countryside Village. Don Klosterman, 16-year coach of UNO’s women’s soccer team, sat down with anchor Anthony Blue to discuss the team’s upcoming journey to the NCAA Division II Final Four. Anchor Jayme Bridie reminded us that you could still smoke in bars and in restaurants.
“With all the health warnings and the hazards of secondhand smoke, it is no wonder that Nebraska is talking about banning smoke from its restaurants and bars. For years now, the distinct smoking and nonsmoking signs have allowed customers who don’t smoke to sit apart from those who do,” Bridie said. “But the bars feel if they abolish smoking, they will lose a significant amount of business.”
The goal of The Omaha News has always been to push students a bit out of their comfort zone by showcasing Omaha stories, not UNO stories, said professors. Also, final portfolios should be bursting at their digital seams by the end of two semesters on the newscast.
“You get the grade, but at the same time immediately pivot, and if there’s a job opening you want to apply for, take it to that job, the final project, and apply,” Hilt said. “That’s the level it should be.”
Samantha Pastorino did just that. After an internship and graduation last fall, Pastorino landed a job at KETV as a morning traffic anchor and reporter.
“You’re essentially interning for a news production,” Pastorino said about The Omaha News. “I was able to learn what I liked or maybe didn’t like as much.”
She named professors Lei Guo and Karen Weber as inspirations during her time at UNO, whether it was their work ethic or desire to see her succeed.
“You’re expected to walk in at a full-time job every day with a pitch as a reporter,” Pastorino said. “At The Omaha News, you’re expected to walk in with a pitch for every newscast as well.”
Hilt said the basic skills learned through UNO’s journalism program are timeless, regardless of the ever-present advance of technology. He witnessed the transition from shooting news on film to electronic news gathering techniques during his broadcasting career.
“How well you write, how well you craft a story, tell a story, that’s consistent over all those years,” Hilt said. “How you deliver it, the technology, that’s what will change.
Then and now, Hilt views the television “package” as the ultimate test.
“It’s designed to be the final class,” Hilt said. “The bringing together of all the student experiences in all the classes leading up to the capstone: how to shoot, how to edit, make it look good, how you sound, how you write. You’re bringing the entire package, a television package, together.”
The restructuring that created the College of Fine Arts, Communication and Media 20 years ago brought previously disconnected departments closer together. The college physically stretches across much of Dodge campus, with Strauss Performing Arts Center and the Weber Fine Arts
building being hubs for creativity. The School of Communication is still located in the Arts and Sciences Hall, and UNO-TV mingles with KVNO classical radio in the College of Public Affairs and Community Service building.
“The students are fantastic, and we need to celebrate them,” Hilt said. “We’re the college to do it. We’ve got broadcasting, journalism, PR; we’ve got the mechanism to get the word out.”
