88-9 KETR is introducing a new live video stream creating the opportunity for Texas A&M University-Commerce students to get more involved with the station.
“The live video streams are a neat, free feature that is available for students on the website,” said Jerrod Knight one of the hosts of the KETR morning show.
The live video streams are new this fall semester, and can be found on a link at the KETR website www.ketr.org.
“The goal of the video stream is to just get the students more involved and interested in what goes on at the station,” Kevin Jefferies, host of the KETR midday show said.
Students can watch special guest appearances and see behind the scenes of what goes on at the radio station. It also gives them an opportunity to put faces with the voices they hear over the radio.
The live stream attracts students at various times, but seems to be most popular during the football games. “During football games, the video streams offer an alternative to audio streams, ” Knight said. In conjunction with the video streams, KETR has also created a Twitter page so the station can be more interactive with students.
“You can create a dialogue with the audience and answer questions and get live feed on Twitter,” Jefferies said.
To find the Twitter page students can log on to Twitter and search “KETR”.
There are problems implementing the video streams, however, mostly due to Internet connectivity.
“It is hard for people to connect due to the lack of high speed Internet; we live in a rural area,” Jefferies said.
KETR has a lot of ideas floating around about the future of the video streams, including the possibility of a web-cam broadcast from football games that will show some coverage of the actual game.
” We are trying to stay relevant,” Scott Harvey another host of “The Morning Blend” said. “We are breaking into a new realm of media. It is a way to try and give students options.”
The broadcast is live from the control room, but if students look closely enough they may find News Director Scott Harvey in the adjacent room dancing and singing.
Students can also log on Friday nights and watch the station broadcast the big Score Board Show. They keep all high school football games scores on a big dry erase board.
“It can get pretty hectic and chaotic,” Jefferies said.
The first week that the video streams went live, Jefferies held a contest to name the bald spot on the back of his head, which he said is very visible for the camera to see. The winner named his bald spot Fuzzy.
This will not be the last contest done over the live video streams, as new ideas are currently in the works.