Various broadcasting professionals are coming to SIUC to share their knowledge with students as Radio-Television Week begins Wednesday.

Reporters, photographers, and editors from stations such as KFVS-TV in Cape Girardeau, Mo., and CNN will speak to students Wednesday through Saturday.

Speakers during Radio-Television Week include:Mark Leff, a reporter at CNN; Roz Dorsey, an SIUC alumna and photographer at KTVI-TV, in St. Louis; Norman J. Pattiz, chairman of the board at Westwood One Companies in Los Angeles; and Mike Schuh, an SIUC alumni and reporter at WJZ-TV in Baltimore.

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Radio-Television Week will start with a news writing seminar with Leff as guest speaker at 11 a.m. Wednesday, and it will end Saturday afternoon with a production workshop.

Ken Keller, associate professor in the radio-television department, said the biggest reward of Radio-Television Week is to give the students exposure to industry professionals and real-world situations.

We give the students the opportunity to attend seminars, workshops, and have their work critiqued by people outside the University, he said. It presents the students with an outside influence they wouldn’t otherwise have. That’s important because they can have contact with the latest trends now before they leave SIUC.

Keller said the department’s connections in the industry, as well as SIUC alumni, have made a difference in Radio-Television Week.

I don’t want to take any credit away from any of the other members in the department involved in coordinating Radio-Television Week, he said. This was a team effort, and all of what we’re doing here is really for the benefit of the students who want to get involved in the profession.

Larry Collette, associate professor in the radio-television department, said a student’s experience with professionals today can lead to job opportunities after graduation.

When people from outside the University come in and have a chance to look at the students’ work, they are more apt to hire them after graduation, he said.

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Collette said SIUC graduates already in the industry help students get jobs after graduation.

Alumni of the University with jobs in the industry help open the door for those who are graduating now, he said. It’s all just a big cycle that in the end benefits all SIU graduates that participated in the radio-television program. In that respect, Radio-Television Week is an important part of our program because of the networking involved between the students and professionals.