The student-run television station aired their longest Election Night broadcast on November 8 with coverage reaching five hours
What was originally planned as a four hour broadcast airing from 8 p.m. EST until 12 a.m. EST, turned into five hours going off air at 1 a.m. EST. This turned out to be the longest Election Night in Oswego broadcast thus far for WTOP-10 T.V. The extended coverage not only brought viewers up to date polling information but gave those who participated in the broadcast one of the most valuable experiences of their time to date at WTOP-10 T.V.
The broadcast was stacked with polling results in the national and local elections, live interviews with guests, and live shots from campaign headquarters around Syracuse, NY. Hosts Justin Penman ’18, Lauren Toscano ’16, and Kirby Socker ’18 conducted in-studio interviews with special guests that included: Editor-in-Chief of The Oswegonian, JoAnn DeLauter ’17, political science professor Brandon Metroka, international student Lindsey Martin, and social media correspondents Kalie Hudson ‘16 and Arielle Schunk ‘17. Bringing viewers live coverage at various campaign locations in Syracuse were Oswegonian reporters Natalie Brophy ’17 at Colleen Deacon’s campaign, and Lydia Goerner ‘17 at John Katko’s. The broadcast would not have been possible without the hard work that was put in from the talent and crew at WTOP-10 T.V. Producers Hayley Prenatt ‘17 and Justin Penman ‘18, have worked tirelessly for the past month to ensure that Election Night in Oswego would be the best it could possibly be. Penman, who also served as host for the entirety of the broadcast, expressed how it felt to play a major role in such a lengthy live show.
“Hosting a five-hour broadcast was exciting, exhausting, and most of all rewarding. The fact that I know I am capable of something like this gave me a real sense of accomplishment”, says Penman.
Prenatt says herself, and night-of assistant producer Anthony Sagrestano ‘18 ended up scraping a lot of the content that was planned due to the polling results constantly coming in.
“The hardest part for sure was not knowing what we were doing block to block because we were waiting on numbers”, says Prenatt.
On social media, Lauren Toscano ‘16 shared a message about the experience she had co-hosting Election Night in Oswego 2016. “We made history last night at WTOP. I’m super proud of how successful the broadcast was and am floored with the support we received.” Toscano wrote.
With this year’s five-hour broadcast completed, general manager Justin Dobrow ‘17 added to the feedback, expressing how amazingly dedicated the talent and crew were.
“I could not be more proud of the incredible crew and talent that were apart of this broadcast. We [WTOP] originally planned for only four hours, but with the consistency of our passion we all decided to go for one more hour- that’s what I love- that’s what makes us ‘Toppers,” says Dobrow.
With overwhelming support on social media and in the WTOP-10 T.V. office, each person involved in Election Night in Oswego, especially those graduating, were able to make memories to look back on for years to come.
Check out some pictures from the broadcast all courtesy of WTOP-10 T.V.’s very own photography director, Tom Kasperowicz ‘17:
Hosts Justin Penman and Lauren Toscano minutes before the broadcast began
Director Taylor Ksiazek hard at work
Social media correspondents Kalie Hudson and Arielle Schunk discussed social media in this year’s election
VP of Productions Ian Dwyer pushed to extend the broadcast an extra hour due to the late polling results coming in
The control room was filled with beautiful HD quality as crew members worked tirelessly all through the night
Host Justin Penman interviewed international student Lindsey Martin, who gave a different perspective on the election
In the studio, crew members stayed focused throughout
Hosts Justin Penman and Kirby Socker discuss incoming results from local, state, and national elections
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