TigerTV is celebrating its 20th year of production. Over the years, the station has refined its production and has begun incorporating more advanced technology.

For the past two decades, TigerTV has been a student-run broadcasting organization. Because of this, the students are given the opportunity and creative freedom  to produce the shows they want.

“TigerTV is and always had been very student-run,” said Benjamin Gomez, TigerTV station manager. “We’ve always had one or two staff advisors to oversee things, but every show is entirely student-produced, and that’s happened for 20 years. It’s awesome that students have continued to have the drive and commitment towards something without that much push from the university.”

The crew agrees that watching TigerTV turn 20 years old is exciting. The station has developed a great deal since it first began, and the students are able to understand this firsthand with their advisor.

“It’s really exciting to be a part of TigerTV at this time, especially because our faculty advisor, James Bynum, has been here since the creation of it,” said Mackenzie Hill, promotions and marketing manager.

There have been many changes in the past 20 years, and James Bynum, faculty advisor, has witnessed them all. From new members to new technology, the station has developed constantly since its start. The station started with only a handful of students.

“I’ve seen TigerTV grow from five students producing a single morning show to a team of over 60 students producing hours of broadcast-quality programming every week,” Bynum said.

Over Alumni Weekend, the current TigerTV staff was able to meet former staff members, including the founding members.

“I got to talk to someone who graduated in 1999, and she talked about the use of VHS and how, when livestreaming, you had to run up and down the hallways to be able to turn things on and off and to have things go smoothly through live-airing on television,” Hill said.

Current students were also told stories of past complications with production and the challenges that came with the older technology.

“Early TigerTV students used huge studio cameras and videotape machines that weighed hundreds of pounds,” Bynum said.  

“Today, TigerTV has all broadcast quality, state-of-the-art digital HD equipment that is small, lightweight and very portable. TigerTV students are using the same equipment the professionals at downtown television stations are using,”

The studio was remodeled in 2010, and everything is now located in the control room, including the best equipment the staff could have access to.

“The first set we borrowed from the theatre department back in 1996, and we had one little, old camera and one mobile unit that was jerry-rigged. Now we have a fully HD studio with $1000 cameras and all these sets and lights,” Gomez said.

The studio has also begun to broadcast live online, a very different type of production compared to the broadcasting when TigerTV first started. TigerTV has also increased the number of hours of original content it produces weekly; however, the staff hopes to continually boost that number.

“Right now, we produce roughly 1.5 hours of original content a week, but I’d like to see us do 24 hours of content a day. We want to eventually produce enough content for a whole day of broadcasting,” Gomez said.

Although the station has always produced student-run shows, the current shows are not the same as the original shows that aired. TigerTV offers a variety of genres of production, which allows students to seek whichever style they are most interested in.

“We have people who want to pursue comedy doing the Not-So-Late Show, people who like music a lot doing Studio 21, and people who have gone to work for KSAT who used to work with Newswave,” Gomez said.

TigerTV hopes to increase its involvement with both the Trinity and San Antonio communities with expanded coverage and a larger range of segments and shows.

“With that, it’d bring more diversity within our segments. All of them are informational and are geared toward Trinity students, but I think doing more within the San Antonio community and not being as-geared for Trinity students,” Hill said.

To celebrate the last 20 years, TigerTV will be hosting a 20-hour live broadcast on the weekend of November 19.

The show will engage the entire Trinity community with skits and segments involving many student organizations. For more information on the anniversary program individuals should contact Benjamin Gomez at [email protected].