Through My Lens: Oklahoma City Media Tour

To be honest, I signed up for this OKC Media Tour class because I needed credit hours to graduate. The word "tour" never fails to get my attention. I'm an outdoor person; so, I thought this class would be all about going to places like TV or Radio stations around OKC. Yes I was right, we visited News 9 and KFOR. However, I did not expect that my professor, Dr. Nelson would invite guest speakers to come to share their experience with the class. I enjoy that part of class the most.

Those media professionals that I heard from are Dax Davis (Program Director, Sports Animal, Cumulus Communication), Vance Harrison (President, Oklahoma Broadcast Association), Jake Fisher (bi-lingual Sales, KTUZ, Tyler Media), Joe Kozlowski (Creative Services, KFOR), Terry Monday (VP, Perry Broadcasting), Mike Edmonson (PR, National Cowboy Museum), Jenny Monroe (PIO, Edmond Police Department), Dylan Buckingham (Sports Anchor/Reporter, KFOR), Lisa Monahan (Investigative Reporter, News9), Mark Norman (Director of Technology, OETA), Matt Kemp (Audio Commercial Engineer, KRXO & RKONE), and David Rhea (Journal Record)

They shared countless of stories with the class. From how they got into the business, endured ups and downs, and they are who they are now. I would have never knew that these people have such amazing and inspirational stories if I had not taken this class. This has definitely brought up the question on why I chose to do Broadcasting in the first place.

When I was 16 years old, I went to a church youth camp. I remember vividly that the pastor said, "The richest place on Earth is the cemetery. There're so many untold stories buried under it." That phrase struck me real hard. I questioned myself on how can I help to document those untold stories. Long story short, God led me into Broadcasting. If you're interested to know the long story, here's a note I posted on my Facebook.

In that note, I mentioned that I dropped out of an Engineering course because I didn't like it. I feel that I could relate to Mr. Terry Monday as he switched from Business major to Broadcast major. He did Business because his grandma wanted him to, and I tried Engineering because I didn't want to disappoint my parents. Anyway, when I told my parents that I wanted to switch, they were really supportive, and I know that they had to work really hard to send me here to study. I'm graduating this December and my parents will be here for my graduation. I want to let them know that I'm proud of them. I know that they are proud of me because my dad would like and comment on my projects whenever I put them up on my Facebook.

Just before I signed up to do Broadcasting, my dad's friend who works at a local TV station back in Malaysia brought us into the station for a tour. There are four channels (TV3, NTV7, 8TV, and TV9) and three radio stations (HotFM, FlyFM, and OneFM) under a group called Media Prima. Each of these stations has their own target audience that consist of Malay-speaking, English-speaking or Chinese-speaking demographic. Every stations has their own studios for news shows, cooking shows, talk shows, game shows, and etc. You can imagine how huge is that place. A quick comparison between the news studio in Malaysia and the ones we visited in Oklahoma. They are quite similar except for the weather desk. Back home, there's only graphics shown on the screen that forecast if it's going to rain or shine the next day. Over here, there'll be a meteorologist like Gary England who will be standing in front of the green screen and do his thing. Anyway, at the end of the day, my dad asked if I was sure that I would like to work in this kind of environment. I wasn't sure but I still said yes.

As I hear from the speakers, most of them said that sales is where the big bucks are. It is definitely an area I will look into in the future. I know that doing business is in my blood; my grandpa owns a convenient store, and my dad owns a plastic bag manufacturing business. Who knows I might end up with a production company. Fingers crossed. But, before that, I would love to get some experience working and learn business trades from someone or some company. Thomas Edison once said that, "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." I will live on this, and not give up on my dream to tell the stories of others through media, be it photography or videography.

Before I sign off this blogpost, a shout out to Dr. Nelson for a job well done in coordinating this class. I would encourage other students to sign up for this class when it's offered again. This class will be a life-changer for many of you as it had been for me.

Here's some pictures I took.