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Broadcast students and faculty blitzed the airwaves, providing statewide election coverage
By Lucas Hamilton

Students in the J-School’s Radio-Television Department traveled across the state as a part of Montana PBS’s live election night coverage.

J-School Professor Denise Dowling produced the statewide broadcast with the help of adjunct professors John Twiggs, who hosted the show, and Gus Chambers, who directed it. About 10 students from the R-TV program volunteered to travel across the state, covering results in Helena, Kalispell, Billings, Bozeman, Missoula and Great Falls.

“The students learned a great deal that night,” said Dowling, adding that not many of the students had the experience of covering a major election on such a tight deadline.

Holly Baker, a senior in the R-TV program, admitted that her assignment to cover the Secretary of State’s office in Helena seemed daunting. “I was a little nervous at first,” Baker said. With people running all around, Baker said she knew she couldn’t just sit and wait for something to come to her. Baker decided to jump into the fray, spending most of the night near the receptionist’s desk to witness the commotion.

“It did seem very lively -- more lively than normal,” said J-School senior Dan Boyce, who went to Great Falls to cover the returns. Problems with the voting machines in Great Falls, combined with the hundreds of ballots that were accidentally cast with more than one vote for president, delayed the final vote count from the city until late in the night. Boyce said the election officials were still counting each ballot by hand well after the presidential election had been called for Obama.

“It was all over but people were still counting,” Boyce said. “That’s the coolest thing I took out of it.”

Unfortunately for Boyce, the late results meant that his segment had to be cut from the PBS election night coverage. “It taught me a valuable lesson: you’re not always going to get used,” said Boyce.

The same happened to J-School student Drew Tafton, who was in Billings to cover Yellowstone County’s results. “That’s live TV for you,” he said.

Still, Tafton was glad to have the chance to cover the historic election. “Experience is nine-tenths of the game,” he said, adding that this experience will only help him in his future career.

J-School Professor Ray Fanning, who coordinated the live shots from Bozeman for the broadcast, said that the strict deadline of reporting live is something that the typical class can’t match. “It’s always good when you can take the classroom experience out into the real world,” Fanning said.

For J-School senior Natalie Neumann, who works for Montana Public Radio, live coverage is all about “honing in on and realizing what you’re looking for.” Neumann covered the elections from the Missoula courthouse and phoned in her report to the live PBS broadcast.

Both Dowling and Fanning had hoped to do more reporting on the statewide races, but they had to pay attention to the national scene. “We couldn’t do as much local coverage as we wanted to because the presidential race hadn’t been called,” Fanning said.

Still, Dowling said the night was fantastic. “We as faculty are grateful to Montana PBS,” she said. Besides being a great opportunity for students to observe an be a part of a professional news room, Dowling said that it is “incredibly helpful to faculty to keep a hand in the newsroom.”

Montana PBS also aired a special Montana Journal program produced by students at the J-School. “The Unlikely Candidates” profiles six candidates in Montana running outside of mainstream politics. Noel Pederson, one of the students who worked on the project as part of a class taught by Twiggs, enjoyed the experience.

“It was pretty awesome,” Pederson said. “It was interesting to get to know the third party candidates.”

On the radio, KUFM-FM covered the election with the help of Neumann and two J-School graduates, Emilie Ritter and Katrin Frye. Ritter reported from the Democrats’ election night celebration in Helena, while Frye called in from Billings with the Republicans’ party. In the studio, KUFM-FM News Director Sally Mauk sat down with J-School Professor Dennis Swibold and UM political science Professor Christopher Muste to broadcast live commentary as the results came in.

Mauk said it was hard to keep listeners interested in the statewide and US Congress races throughout the election because so few were closely contested. The station made up the difference with thorough coverage of the battle for the presidency.

“We really had outstanding coverage of the presidential race,” Mauk said. “That was a really great thing for our listeners.”

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