The Morning Graze Provides Students Hands-on Experience

February 6, 2001

Oklahoma Baptist University's telecommunication professor Dr. Roger Hadley knows the importance of hands-on experience. He creates every opportunity he can for his students to get on the job experience while on Bison Hill.

As part of Hadley's radio production class, Scott Poole, a sophomore telecommunications major from Southlake, Texas, and David Hedrick, a senior telecommunications major from Tulsa, produced and hosted their own radio show on OBU's cable channel 30 every weekday morning during January.

The Morning Graze was a two-hour show that featured contemporary Christian music with weather, sports and news updates.

"This activity is in the telecom tradition of live hands-on experience," Hadley said. "Even though it is not an actual radio station, the cable channel gives David and Scott the same experience in producing live entertainment."

The show was Hadley's idea but the students were able to choose the program's format, and graphics and gave the show its name.

"The most challenging part was the two-hour live format," Poole said. "When you listen to the radio, you don't know what happens behind the scenes. We've learned a lot about the planning that has to happen before you start talking, like writing the weather, trivia, and news updates."

The show featured a request line for listeners to call in and request their favorite Christian music selections.

"We noticed we received requests mostly after students got out of classes in the mornings and on Fridays," Hedrick said.

Although The Morning Graze was only a January project, Hedrick and Poole think students would enjoy the program during the regular semester.

"There is talk of continuing the show in some format on Tuesday and Thursday nights," Hedrick said. "I would encourage anyone interested in becoming involved to do it. We've learned a lot, and we've definitely had fun."