Panic! Late in the second half of Ashland men’s basketball game against No. 21 Wayne State this past Thursday, the scoreboard in Kates Gymnasium went out. It was a nice breather for the players and coaches and a minor annoyance to the fans in attendance, but for everyone else it was a hectic couple of minutes.

As the people behind the scenes scrambled to get the board back into working order, perhaps those most affected by the pause in action were the broadcasters.

Normally, for Senior Sport Communication/ Broadcast Communication major Matt Brubaker, this would mean filling a few extra minutes for the handful of listeners on 88.9 WRDL campus radio, but not on Thursday. This was because Brubaker was doing a special broadcast for SportsTime Ohio, a nationally broadcast cable sports network out of Cleveland.

This is the second year that STO has given Journalism Digital Media (JDM) students at Ashland the opportunity to take the controls for a basketball game. The entire broadcast was student-run, from the camera work to the announcing, and the broadcast was aired later that night at 11 p.m.

Both the men’s and women’s games were shot and aired on STO last Thursday and Ashland won both games, including a dramatic one-point comeback victory over a ranked opponent in the men’s game.

“I think it looked really good from everybody’s perspective,” Brubaker said of the final product. Brubaker has been calling games on the radio here at Ashland since he arrived as a freshman and he values the experiences that he has had through the program and STO.

“I love it,” Brubaker said. “I know that it’s a rare opportunity; I know that it won’t happen to too many people.”

For the rest of the JDM majors, it was a rare opportunity to put their skills into practice with professional equipment in a real broadcast. Everyone arrived at the gym at 3 p.m., just over two hours before the games started. The students signed up, got to work and what resulted was a professional broadcast that anyone with a cable sports package could view. To the students’ credit, the biggest technical difficulties occurred with the scoreboard.

As for Brubaker, it could be a big step towards his employment following graduation. He says he could see himself working for STO in the future, maybe even as soon as this fall.

“I think that it would be a great start,” Brubaker said. “A lot of people might start out at a small market radio or TV station, but I think STO, covering Cleveland and some Columbus sports would be a heck of a start for anyone.”

STO will be doing another basketball game later this semester, once again with the help of AU students. So far, these games have been a positive experience for everyone involved, especially those students who have been able to get their feet wet in a professional setting.